Couple of Master Assassins
by Lena Liz Carter
Summary: Sequel to Liars and Killers. The journey continues. It has been two years since Hawkeye and Black Widow came back from Budapest and they go on. What and who they meet on the way? Stark Expo, Puente Antiguo, Dark Energy Base, Manhattan, Tony Stark, Thor, Captain America and Bruce Banner, and even more...
1. Prologue

**So, something about the story, right? It's a sequel to my previous work, Liars and Killers. I highly recommend reading it, because I am going to reference certain events and OC's . But for those who don't want to go through sixteen chapter, I will explain some of the references at the end of each chapter.**

**Anyway, Couple of Master Assassins is a story on its own. It follows the role of Clint and Natasha in the Avengers Initiative, as well as their relationship. There will be spoilers for Iron Man 2, Thor and The Avengers. But there will be a lot of scenes we haven't seen in the films.**

**Prologue**

There were five people in the room. Director Nick Fury and agents Maria Hill, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. The survivors of Budapest.

The TV was on, but they weren't paying attention to it. It was showing Tony Stark over and over again, his life story, story of his father, and, most importantly, his last extempore.

„I am Iron Man."

Natasha was sick of hearing it for the fiftieth time.

„So you all noticed Tony Stark's... indiscretion," said Fury. „He caused a lot of trouble to himself and to us. He basically acted like an idiot, but that's not why I called you here.

Before I get to my point, I want to tell you a couple of things. First, you aren't allowed to take notes. Second, everything I'm about to tell you is top secret and if I find out that you as much as breathed about it to anyone else, I will personally kill you. Third, I'm more or less going to go against the Council orders, so if you aren't comfortable with it, you can walk away now and forget that you've ever been here."

Fury paused and looked at them. Nobody moved.

„Good. Now, have you heard about the Avengers Initiative? I'm not surprised that you haven't. It's an old concept, it's been canceled years ago. Its objective was to create a group of what you'd call superheroes. The best elite soldiers in the world. You are all familiar with the story of Captain America."

All heads turned to Coulson, who visibly brightened. His collection of vintage trading cards was legendary among SHIELD agents.

„He was meant to be the first of many, but the man who made the serum, Dr. Erskine, died and Captain Rogers was not only the first one, but the only one as well. When I found out that Stark was working on that suit, I asked myself – why not? Why not start again, this time gathering the soldiers instead of making them? I put forth the proposal to the Council."

„And they said no," said Natasha. It was the only possible outcome.

„Just so. But I'm not giving up. I have blueprints of a new aircraft. It's like nothing that has ever been done, but we will try. Agent Hill, that's going to be your responsibility. Eventually I want you to consult with Stark. I know, that man is a pain in the ass, but a genius as well. That thing is yours.

Agent Coulson, agent Romanoff, you are going to be our negotiators. I want someone to infiltrate Stark Industries and keep an eye on him."

„And Stark already knows Coulson's face," Natasha sighed.

„No whining, agent Romanoff, you will survive. You probably won't interact with him too much. Here is your cover story," he passed her a folder. „We are in process of preparing you a place in the company. If everything goes according to the plan, you'll start there in January. Barton, you are going to be the middle man for now, you will take Romanoff's messages and bring them to me. If anything goes wrong, you'll be Romanoff's backup."

„Roger that," Clint nodded.

„That's enough for the start. You are dismissed for now. And remember, if one word gets out..." Fury threatened.

„You still owe us the court martial for Budapest," Natasha remarked as they all got up.

„And I can still do it."

„Please," Natasha smiled on her way out. „You haven't done anything for two years and now you want to pull it out?"

Coulson and Hill were gone and Natasha was waiting outside, but Clint turned around in the doorway.

„This doesn't sound like you kind of thing," he told Fury. „Going against a direct order."

„I've learned something from you two. Sometimes you have to disobey, if you want to win."

_Liars and Killers references:_

"_The survivors of Budapest." - In the Budapest incident these five people alone held a group of organic robots at bay and stopped them from killing innocent people._

"_You still owe us the court martial for Budapest." - Fury promised them that he'll have Clint, Natasha and Coulson court martialed for insubordination. They were ordered to leave, but they stayed to stop the robots._


	2. Is this love, agent Romanoff?

**There is a lot of Iron Man 2 spoilers in this chapter. I admit I counted on the readers to be familiar with Iron Man 2, so I didn't explain things like who is Justin Hammer or Tony's blood poisoning.**

**Anyway, thanks for all the fantastic reviews, I'm glad that people who enjoyed Liars and Killers came back for another part of the story. I hope I can live up to your expectations. :-)**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Is this love, agent Romanoff?**

"Do you have to go?" Natasha asked.

It wasn't pleading, she was just making sure that this was really the only way.

"Fury very specifically promises to kick certain parts of my body if I refuse," said Clint and tossed a clean T-shirt in his duffel bag.

"I'm going to go crazy here," she warned him. Tony Stark had been driving her up the wall ever since she first met him. When he escaped Coulson's supervision earlier that day and went to talk to Pepper Potts, she was furious. She had yelled at Coulson for almost five minutes before he had managed to tell her that Stark was no longer his responsibility because he and Clint were being reassigned.

"C'mon Nat, you have handled worse," he tried to cheer her up.

"I can handle murderers, mafia bosses, weapon dealers, terrorist, I can even handle politicians, but I have a serious problem with annoying overgrown teenagers. Fury's risking his precious genius here, because one more smartass comment and I swear, if the blood poisoning doesn't kill him, I will."

"If it makes you feel any better, I have been assigned to protect a team working on a _yet unexplained meteorological anomaly_. Meaning I am going to babysit a bunch of nerds," he said bitterly.

"Hey, maybe you will see E.T.," she teased him. "Me, I'll see only paperwork and Justin Hammer embarrassing himself in front of the whole Stark Expo."

"That should be funny."

"I can think of a thousand more useful ways to spend my time. It's going to get boring here," she said, looking around.

He knew she loved the small flat Coulson had rented for her undercover. They both lived there, posing as Natalie Rushman and her brother Lucas, and Clint acted as the middle man, bringing Natasha's messages to Fury. Occasionally he was called off to a short mission, but in the meantime it felt like holiday. When she came home and sat at the kitchen table with a glass of wine and her laptop to write her daily report, it almost felt like a family evening. He always made her breakfast and woke her up. He tried to be creative with his wake up calls, but he learned the hard way that things like dousing her with cold water or playing _Barbie Girl _on full volume were not good ideas. His nose still hurt when he remembered the last one. Once, on Sunday, they tried to cook dinner, but they found out that they were both a disaster in kitchen. They ended up in an Italian restaurant nearby and when they got back, Fury had been waiting for them, furious because they didn't answer their phone. Once they sat on the roof all night, drank wine and she showed him the constellations and told him the legends about them.

_It's like sharing an apartment with an actual sister, _Clint thought and he too was sad that it's over.

Of course, it wasn't all fun. She invited him to the Stark Expo opening but they weren't in the crowd, they climbed on the construction high above the main stage. That's where they saw Stark's medical scanner and alerted Fury that there's something wrong with his favorite genius. Clint hadn't been in Monaco with her, when Stark was almost killed by a madman and there was nothing Natasha could do about it and not get fried in the process. They both knew that Stark was dying and even though his name alone could make her angry, they both felt sorry for him. It was Clint's idea to call Fury to talk some sense into Stark and he was part of the team that secured the perimeter while Fury managed to get Stark out of the giant plastic donut and Natasha injected him with lithium dioxide to make the symptoms of his blood poisoning go away.

And now, just one day later, he was being reassigned to New Mexico.

"You think that things around Stark can ever get boring?" he smiled.

She looked down and the small smile faded from her face. "I don't think I will be around Stark much longer. He has to find the cure in time or... Well, either way, he won't need me then."

There was nothing Clint could say. He finished packing in silence and zipped the duffel bag. Natasha walked him to the door of the apartment.

"Good luck with the babysitting," she said.

"Good luck with Stark. See ya," he smiled.

She returned the smile, stepped back and closed the door, as he walked away.

XXX

Natasha closed the door behind him and leaned her forehead against it. _Why does it get harder every time? _She knew he would be fine, but she still hated to see him go. And the last two months... she got used to this normal life too much. She hadn't fired a single bullet since the beginning of this mission. Two months without a fight. This had to be some kind of her personal record. She hadn't stayed out of trouble for this long since she was eight.

She went back to his room and stretched on his bed. His presence still lingered, traces of his scent in the air, opened wardrobe door, cookies he had bought her. She ran her fingers across the sheets, half wishing that he would come back and find her here...

She sat up so quickly that the bed creaked. No. No. No, no, no!

She had seen enough of this behavior to recognize the symptoms. She was proud of the accuracy with which she could tell whether someone had a crush. For example she had known about the mutual feelings between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts from the minute she had seen them together. She was probably more aware of them than they were. She knew that agent Hill was in love with Fury but she had never told him. But these were all other people, not her.

She walked to the bathroom and washed her face with cold water. Too late she realized that she was wearing makeup, so she spent next ten minutes repairing the damage. When she was done, she looked in the mirror.

"You are not falling for Clint," she said.

But she was good at reading body language and could tell that the woman in the mirror was lying through her teeth.

XXX

Clint waved at Coulson, who was talking to someone over the phone, and went to sit in the Quinjet. There were three other agents inside, two men and a woman. The woman barely noticed him, but both men looked at him with interest. One of them was in his forties and his hair was more gray than black. The other one was a rookie, barely twenty one, which was the minimum age for entering the SHIELD, small and thin, with pale skin, almost white hair, and blue eyes behind glasses - an albino.

There were two categories of people in SHIELD - those who admired and feared Clint and those who feared and hated him. It took him just one look to place the men. The young albino watched him like he was some kind of a celebrity, the older man was doing his best to conceal his disgust. He was doing quite a good job, but Clint had learned a couple of tricks from Natasha. He looked at the older man again. It was an ordinary face, but Clint remembered him.

"Agent Warner?" he asked.

"Agent Barton," said Warner, nodding slightly to confirm his name.

"You two know each other?" the boy asked excitedly.

"We met in Sao Paulo," Warner told him, his eyes not leaving Clint's face. Clint now understood the hatred in them. Warner had been in the backup team and Natasha, under the influence of a drug, killed one of his colleagues. Maybe it was even a friend. Warner had to hate her for that and everyone knew that no one can hate the Black Widow and be friends with Hawkeye at the same time.

"Warner was in the team that saved my life," said Clint, trying to offer peace. It was true - their distraction was the only thing that had stopped the brainwashed Natasha.

"Really?" Apparently Warner just became a hero in the boy's eyes.

"Agent Barton, this is agent Terence Holzmann, technical expert," Warner introduced them.

"Nice to meet you, agent Holzmann," Clint said and the boy nearly swooned.

"It's an honor, sir," Holzmann almost stuttered. "I keep hearing stories about you and agent Romanoff ever since agent Warner brought me to SHIELD."

His choice of words caught Clint's interest. "Brought you here? You didn't apply?"

"No, sir, I have been recruited. I..."

"He's a technical genius," Warner interrupted him. "We need more hardware experts, so the director allowed me to bring agent Holzmann in as a special case."

Clint bit his lip. He had been a special case too, many years ago. Natasha had been one too. It meant only one thing and it was not a very nice thing.

"How old are you?" he asked the boy.

"Eighteen, sir."

_Well, at least he's legally adult, _Clint thought. Once he had seen a newly recruited special case linguist. She was thirteen when she joined SHIELD.

"You have to be really good," Clint commented and for a moment it looked like Holzmann was going to faint. "And stop calling me sir. It's Hawkeye for nearly everybody."

"Thank you, s... Hawkeye. I'm Terence."

"As I said, nice to meet you, Terence."

XXX

When Natasha walked in Pepper Potts' office, she saw the other woman sitting behind her desk, head down, looking exhausted. Natasha liked her. Stark's right hand woman looked quiet and fragile, but she was level-headed, highly capable, and very observant. Something about her reminded Natasha of Janet Kirk. Like her, Pepper Potts was much more than she seemed to be.

"I've talked to Phil," she said. It took Natasha a second to realize that she was talking about Coulson. She had never heard anyone call him by his first name. "He told me who you are."

"Are you going to fire me?" she asked. At least that had been Stark's first reaction.

"Can I? I don't think so," Potts looked up. "But I have a punishment ready for you. I have two invitations for Hammer's show tonight. I don't want to go there alone and as you've locked Tony up somewhere, you are going to suffer it with me."

Natasha smiled. The long days when they fought together to maintain Stark's and the company's public image made them allies and this shared secret made them co-conspirators.

"Fair enough," she said. "Will that be all?"

"Hammer is planning something. I don't know what and hopefully he'll just make an idiot of himself like usual, but stupid ideas can easily get out of hand. Just in case - are you armed?"

"I'm ready for anything that can be handled single-handed."

"There are metal detectors, you know." Natasha just smiled and Pepper Potts sighed. "I should have known you have a way around those."

_Liars and Killers references:_

_The Sao Paulo events were explained in the text. Brainwashed Natasha attacking SHIELD agents pretty much sums it up._

"_Something about her reminded Natasha of Janet Kirk." - Janet Kirk was Natasha's very good friend in SHIELD who taught her about computers and hacking. Janet and her husband Abe were killed as a revenge for one of the villains. _


	3. This is monsters and magic

**This is full of spoilers for Iron Man 2 and a couple of spoilers for Thor. Clint and Natasha are not together, but it doesn't mean they are not busy.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: This is monsters and magic**

Natasha thought that might be trouble from the moment she saw the Hammerdrones.

When she saw Rhodes emerging in an Iron Man suit, she was sure there was going to be trouble, she just didn't know when.

When she heard the Iron Man coming, she knew that they already were in trouble.

And when the Iron Man flew through the glass roof, followed by Rhodes and a dozen Hammerdrones, there was time to act.

"We need to know what's going on," she told Potts.

"Follow me," said Potts simply and led her under the stage. Natasha was impressed. Potts was not trained for anything like this and yet she managed to maintain her calm. Or maybe years of Tony Stark simply prepared her for everything.

Justin Hammer was already trying to do something about the situation, but Natasha didn't believe for a second that there was anything he _could _do.

"Please, go away, go away!" He stood between them and the computers. "I've got this handled."

"Have you now?" Potts yelled at him.

"Yes, I do. In fact, if your guy haven't showed up, this wouldn't be happening! So please now, go away. Thank you." Hammer thought that the conversation was over and if Potts was there alone, it probably would have been. But Natasha didn't have time for this nonsense.

She pinned Hammer to the table and twisted his arm behind his back.

"And now you tell me - who's behind this? Who's behind this?" she hissed in his ear.

"Ivan... Ivan... ouch... Ivan Vanko."

"Where is he?"

"He is at my facility."

That was enough for her. She left Potts to deal with Hammer who was going to be much more cooperative now. Vanko was controlling Rhodes' suit and someone had to do something about it.

She marched through the crowd to meet a confused Happy Hogan.

"Get in the car!" she told him. She needed to change, but she couldn't lose time. "Take me to Hammer Industries."

"I'm not taking you anywhere," Happy protested.

"Fine, you want me to drive?" She knew that Happy won't let anyone behind the wheel of one of his precious cars.

"No, I'm driving."

_At least something worked, _she thought as she sat in the backseat and started to take her clothes off. She would need Happy to watch the perimeter. _I wish Clint would be here_. It was going to be risky, infiltrating a weapon factory with only a chauffeur to back her up. Not impossible, but risky.

"Watch the road!" she warned Happy who had been so busy staring at her reflection in the rearview mirror that he almost crashed into another car. She understood that he was a regular man who had a half naked woman in his backseat, but the last thing she needed was a car crash.

They arrived in the building and Happy insisted on going in with her. She let him. The guard at the door was poorly armed and not well trained, Happy had a chance to beat him and not get beaten up. Meanwhile she had to take care of the rest.

She had a new suit and a bunch of new toys. And so she played.

It was almost a little disappointing. She expected someone a little better trained, but then again, they were just regular guard. Of course they didn't stand a chance. She stopped counting at five. Her priority was speed. Vanko knew about her and she didn't want to let him escape.

Unfortunately when she burst in the control room with Happy behind her, she realized they were late. Vanko was gone.

But he had left his computer behind. Anyone else would be lost because even the keyboard was Russian, but not Natasha. She had no idea how these suits worked, but she needed to give Tony Stark a little help.

She remembered Janet's voice. _When something doesn't work, try turning it off and on._

Natasha's fingers started to dance on the keyboard. She knew exactly how Rhodes felt. She too had been stripped of control of her body and sent to kill her friend. She wasn't going to let him suffer much longer.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm rebooting Rhody's suit."

In a moment words SYSTEM ACCESS flashed across the screen and she saw Stark's face.

"Reboot complete. You've got your best friend back." She smiled.

"Thank you very much, agent Romanoff," Stark replied and he sounded nothing like his usual self.

"Well done with your new chest piece," she complimented him. "I'm reading significantly higher output and your vitals are promising."

"Yes, for the moment I'm not dying." Well, it was Tony Stark, but he acted different in the suit. A little less annoying.

"What do you mean you're not dying?" Voice of Pepper Potts came from another screen. Natasha forgot that the computer at the Expo, where Potts was, would come online too. Oops. "Did you just say you're dying?"

"Is that you? No, I'm not. Not anymore." _He didn't tell her, _Natasha realized. _Why wouldn't you tell your successor that your days are counted? Unless you want to spare their feelings and it's more important to you than preparing the company for the blow. _Well, maybe there was more to Tony Stark than it seemed.

"What's going on?" Potts demanded to know.

"I was going to tell you, I didn't want to..."

"You were going to tell me? You really were dying?"

"You didn't let me..."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I was going to make you an omelet and tell you!"

_This is no time for a domestic fight, there is a pretty big one still going on, _Natasha thought and decided to interrupt this.

"Hey, save it for the honeymoon." Because there was going to be a honeymoon sooner or later, Natasha was sure. "You've got incoming, Tony. Looks like the fight is coming to you."

"Great. Pepper?"

"Are you OK now?" asked Potts.

"I'm fine. Don't be mad, I'll formally apologize, when I'm not..."

"I am mad!"

"... fending of a Hammeroid attack!"

"Fine!"

"We could have been in Venice."

"Oh please!"

The conversation was over and Natasha could return to her work.

"Wait outside," she told Happy. "There's no one here, I'm safe, I just have to do something."

This time he finally listened to her and left. She set the computer to send all data to SHIELD headquarters and stayed at the screen to act as a lookout for Stark.

* * *

The whole party fell silent when a dozen SHIELD agents in black suits and sunglasses walked straight to the hammer-shaped object in the middle of the small crater. Coulson stood there with his arms folded while a couple of technicians started working on the hammer.

"I am sorry, people," said Coulson. "This is an army satellite, it might be emitting potentially harmful radiation. On behalf of the Army of Unites States, I have to ask you to leave this location. Now."

Clint looked at the men gathered around. They weren't dangerous. For some of them this would be the most exciting thing that happened in their lives. But they would leave. Some of them were afraid of the authorities, some of them were afraid of the guns, and they all left.

"Barton, set a base here. Warner, with me," Coulson ordered.

"Where are you going?" asked Clint.

"I have to pay a visit to a scientist."

But when Coulson returned an hour later with a few vans full of what looked like a home-made scientific equipment, Clint stopped scolding a rookie for a poorly constructed fence and went to look.

"I thought you said pay a visit, not steal everything they have," he muttered.

"Don't act like you care," growled Warner.

"It's just temporary," Coulson stopped the argument before it could start. "Holzmann, come here and take a look at this. Can you figure out how to use it?"

"Sure." Terence looked confident. "Can you get me help from some astrophysicist? Just to clarify a couple of details. Otherwise these should be ready to use in two hours, one if I get someone to help me, plus an hour or two of calibration."

Terence Holzmann was busy, but Clint wasn't. The base was built, perimeter secured, guards placed. There wasn't much to do, so Clint went back to the trailer he shared with Coulson and replayed Natasha's video message about the disaster at Stark Expo. He missed her. He didn't expect it would be so hard to be away from her. Ever since Budapest they had been together almost all the time, Coulson rarely sent them to individual missions. He claimed that it was a waste of good agents and sent two less experienced agents where Clint or Natasha wouldn't need any help. Clint got too used to her snarky comments, rare smiles, and their private jokes. It was a strange feeling not to have all that around and he didn't like it.

He opened a book she gave him and was somewhere in the middle when something happened. The usual buzz of his communicator grew louder. It sounded like the two guards who went to investigate something at the west side of the fence didn't answer.

And then...

"_Agent down, we've got a perimeter breach!"_

After that the whole place went crazy. Clint heard people yelling and running and apparently no one knew what was going on. He ran out of the trailer. The rain was coming down in buckets and Clint cursed under his breath. He had spent a lot of nights in the rain but it didn't make him like it any better. Suddenly he heard Coulson's voice.

"I need eyes up high – with a gun."

There was no need to say who was supposed to be the eyes. Clint ran to the weapons trailer and opened the locker with his name. He grabbed a sniper's gun, but hesitated. No, his trademark weapon would be better. He took his new bow.

The crane was ready. He jumped in a small cage and on his way up he was already scanning the base for the intruder. It wasn't difficult to spot him, he was in the canvas tunnel and he wasn't exactly hiding. More like beating up even excellent fighters. Whoever he was, he was incredibly strong and well trained, Clint had never seen anyone like him before. Shooting him seemed like the only way to stop him because he simply knocked out anyone who got in his way.

"Barton, talk to me," said Coulson.

"You want me to slow him down, sir?" Clint asked. His silhouette was clearly visible against the canvas and it wouldn't be hard to hit him. "Or are you sending more guys for him to beat up?"

"I'll let you know."

Of course, this had to be a part of Fury's game. Why else let a very dangerous man get so close to their newest bounty? But it was not Clint's business so he kept an arrow aimed at the man and waited.

The intruder was now fighting one of the scariest guards around, an ex-mercenary and a brute, even Clint didn't want to mess with this one. They fell through the wall of the tunnel and were now fighting in the mud. The intruder's fighting style was nothing like Clint's or Natasha's, he relied mostly on his strength, but when he kicked the guard in the chest with both his feet, mid-jump, Clint had to admire his skill. It would be a shame to kill him.

"Better call it, Coulson, cause I'm staring to root for this guy," he muttered.

The intruder reached the hammer. _He looks like he knows it, _Clint thought and suddenly he was sure that once the man touches the hammer, something terrible is going to happen. _That's it, I'm going crazy, _ he decided.

"Last chance, sir," he warned Coulson, as the intruder stood next to the hammer with a smile on his face.

"Wait, I want to see this," Coulson stopped him.

The intruder caught the hammer and tried to lift it. But, like every person before him, he couldn't. Clint saw his smile fade and he pulled harder, but the hammer didn't move an inch. Finally, he gave up, looked at the sky and screamed. Clint heard a lot of screams in his life, but nothing like this. It was not the sound of a wounded animal he had heard when agents lost their friends in battle, nor the terror and pain of people who were tortured. This was the kind of scream he associated with ancient tragedies. This was what King Arthur must have sounded like when he found out about Lancelot and Guinevere.

Coulson called the ground units and Clint packed his bow. The intruder didn't even struggle when they took him away.

* * *

Clint changed into dry clothes and headed to the detention section. Coulson was interrogating the intruder. Clint imagined Natasha watching the interrogation with him. She wouldn't shut up about Coulson strategy. _Does he really think this will work? Is he blind or just stupid? Well, this was slightly better..._

Clint looked at the intruder again. He looked a little bit like a Viking – tall, strong, blond and blue-eyed. He was staring blankly ahead, not reacting to anything Coulson said, like he couldn't even understand him. But he knew what that hammer thing was, Clint was sure.

Clint pulled out his communicator and sent Coulson a message, asking him to talk to him for a minute.

"What do you want to do with him?" he asked Coulson, when he arrived.

"Find out who he is and then figure out the rest."

"He's not going to talk," Clint said. "At least not to you. Send for Natasha. She can handle him."

"Agent Romanoff still has to clean up the mess Stark made. She won't be free for the next three days."

"Well, then," Clint said, already regretting his decision, "let him go. I'll follow him and find out something about him. Then we can let him go or I'll need just one arrow – the one with the narcotics or a normal one, that's your call. If we can't get Natasha, this is the fastest way."

Coulson thought about it for a moment. "Give me another hour," he said finally.

* * *

_Liars and Killers references:_

"_She remembered Janet's voice. When something doesn't work, try turning it off and on." - Janet Kirk, Natasha's friend, taught her a lot about computers and hacking, even this number one advice._


	4. We drank, we fought

**So, I'm back with another chapter. I'm sorry this is taking longer than Liars and Killers, but an original writing project is now getting most of my attention. Anyway, Clint and Natasha are still apart, but hopefully not for long.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: We drank, we fought**

Clint sat at the bar and watched Eric Selvig and the man who called himself Donald Blake, their intruder. He had been following them from the moment Coulson released Blake. They headed straight to the only bar in Puente Antiguo. Clint was too far to hear their conversation, but he could see their faces. They looked devastated, like anyone whose life work had been taken from him. But when they drank their third Boilermakers, Clint started to smell trouble.

Blake seemed to be able to drink the amount of alcohol, that would send a normal man under the table, without even staggering, but Selvig couldn't keep up with him, no matter how hard he tried. And he did try.

"Lets go, my friend," Clint heard Blake's booming voice. "It's time we go to our chambers."

Wow, this guy had a funny vocabulary.

Blake tried to get Selvig off his bar stool, but Selvig lost balance and knocked down the biggest local in the bar. The man got up and pierced Selvig with a deadly glare. Behind him appeared four of his friends.

"Oh crap," Clint muttered. He was supposed to be only watching, but a few seconds later he found himself making his way through the crowd to the place where Selvig just got a clumsy punch in the face. Blake defended him and the whole thing was going to end up with someone badly hurt. Luckily, the locals saw that they were no match for Blake and after two bloody noses they were ready to retreat.

Unfortunately, Selvig was back on his feet.

"Hey you, troll!" he shouted at the man who had punched him.

"Who are you calling troll?"

Selvig responded with a right hook. Well, for an astrophysicist it wasn't bad. But Clint saw Blake tense and decided that this was enough.

"Okay, fellas, we don't have to make any more trouble, do we?" he said, stepping in front of Selvig and facing the locals.

"It's not enough!" Selvig shouted. "This is Thor, the God of Thunder, and I am Odin Allfather! We are mighty!"

Clint turned to Selvig and caught a glimpse of Blake's face. The man looked like someone just punched him in the belly. But there was no time to deal with hurt feelings.

"Sure you are," Clint told Selvig who was laughing now. "Lets get you out."

He started to half lead, half drag Selvig out. Once Blake understood what was going on, he helped him from the other side. Together they helped Selvig sit on the pavement outside. The scientist was giggling now.

"I called you God of Thunder. You are not God of Thunder, are you? You are not, like, real Thor, right?"

"You had too much to drink, my friend," said Blake kindly and turned to Clint. "Thank you, I can take care of him now," he said.

Clint just nodded and let them go. He would find them later, there weren't many places they'd go to. Now he had to send one more message to Coulson.

_Check the mythology of Thor, God of Thunder, and Odin Allfather and see if there can be a connection to Blake._

* * *

Stark's SMS wasn't really asking her to come, more like commanding. Natasha didn't like it, but Fury ordered her to meet Stark for the last time. He called her to his Malibu home instead of his office and he even sent Happy to pick her up.

Happy was unusually quiet during the drive. Natasha didn't pay it any attention, but when she got out of the car and saw his face, she knew something was wrong.

"So, Natalie..." Happy started nervously, "are you all right? I mean, after that thing with Hammer and Vanko... Do you want to talk about it? We can have a drink..."

"I'm sorry, Happy," she said and she meant it. "You know where I work. I can't afford anything like a relationship. Not with a civilian."

"Not even a date?"

She hated to take the last hope from him. "Not even a date."

Happy looked like a puppy that has been kicked. He muttered something like _it doesn't matter _and went to park the car.

"You broke his heart," said the voice of Pepper Potts behind her.

"He'll get over it. He can do better than me," Natasha said and joined Potts.

"Certainly. Did you get the paperwork ready?"

Natasha almost forgot that she still had her job at Stark Industries. Well, she wasn't going to have it for much longer because Stark didn't need her any more, but there were still things she had to do before she would go.

"It will be ready tomorrow, Miss Potts," she promised.

Potts smiled. "I think that after all we've been through together you can call me Pepper."

"I'm Natasha."

The house was still damaged, but Natasha saw workmen clearing the debris away. She had no doubt that Stark was going to make the mansion even more luxurious than before. Stark himself waited in his workshop and he seemed to be looking at plans of some kind of a tower.

"What name do you like better, agent Romanoff, Stark Tower or Iron Man Tower?" he asked her.

"Are you building a castle here?" she asked.

"Not a castle, a skyscraper. And not here, Manhattan. JARVIS, get agent Romanoff a drink," said Stark casually and turned to her. There was not a trace of humility in his voice. He seemed very different from the man he was in the suit, so different that Natasha wondered if Stark had a twin brother. That would beoriginal. Evil twins were cliché, incredibly annoying twin would be something new.

"Why am I here, Stark?" she asked.

"To get fired, of course."

"What he meant was, we called you here to thank you," Pepper interrupted them.

"No, we didn't," Stark protested. "Milady De Winter didn't do it for us, she did it because she was ordered to. Why should I thank her?"

"Maybe because she saved your life?" Pepper suggested.

"I had it handled!"

"It certainly didn't look like it."

"You two have some kind of a girl gang? What do you want me to do, build her a monument? I can put it on my list, but my tower still comes first."

"Don't worry," said Natasha. "He _did _thank me. I don't need him to repeat it officially. And you didn't call me here for this little show, so why don't we cut the crap and get to the point?"

Stark and Pepper exchanged a long look and Natasha caught a glimpse of the Iron Man in his expression.

"I want you to deliver a message to Fury," he told her. "I know he wants me to become a star of his freak show. Tell him that it's not going to happen. I'm not going to become his puppet. I'm willing to work _with _him, but not _for _him. Got it, Mata Hari?"

_You just don't like the idea that you're not in charge, _she thought. "Yes, I get it. I'll tell him. In fact I'm supposed to write an assessment of you. I'll make sure to put it there."

* * *

"A god? Really?"

Clint was perched on a wrecked car and watched agents work on a huge robot in the middle of the street.

"I was with agent Coulson when he negotiated with Thor," said Terence. He was overseeing the transport of what they called the Destroyer. "He looked like... Well, not like anything from this world."

"And I missed all the fun," sighed Clint. He got back from his watch at six in the morning and even thought they woke him up just after the Destroyer had arrived, he came too late.

"Maybe it's better," said Warner, who was working just next to them.

"What do you mean?" Natasha would have noticed the threat in Clint's voice, but Warner didn't.

"Maybe you'd try to save it and make it work for SHIELD. That's what you do with monsters, right?" Warner chuckled.

_Don't punch him, don't punch him, _Clint repeated to himself.

"What do you mean?" asked Terence.

_Holzmann, you're officially an idiot, _Clint clenched his fists.

"Agent Barton was sent on a mission, how long, six years ago? He was meant to kill a dangerous enemy, an assassin who had killed more than twenty people. Nobody knows what happened there but he brought her to SHIELD and convinced his superiors to keep her alive," Warner said with a nasty smile.

_Don't punch him, don't punch him._

"Her? You mean... agent Romanoff?" Terence breathed.

"Yes, agent Natasha Black Widow Romanoff." Warner was enjoying it. "She had been an assassin since she was – how old? Five, six? Shaped to a weapon from the moment she could use one. How much human can be left in a person like this?"

_Don't punch him, don't punch him._

"Enough human to risk her life for people she didn't know," said Clint. "Enough to hunt down one of the most disgusting monsters of our generation. If it wasn't for her, we would never have found Dreykov."

"And tell me, did she hunt Dreykov down to save innocent lives or to get her revenge?"

"Both," Clint admitted. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. Nothing, of course. Revenge is perfectly fine. I'm sure Abraham and Janet Kirk would agree with you."

Clint closed his eyes, but all he saw was the report on the hospital fire. Especially the part that said that the whole attack had been a revenge for Forrester's Smorph facility and Leonor Carreiro.

_Don't p... Screw that!_

But not even the feeling of Warner's nose breaking under his fist made Clint feel any better.

* * *

_Liars and Killers references:_

"_If it wasn't for her, we would never have found Dreykov." - Natasha was the one who found him. In the end she found out that it was Dreykov's intention all along, because he wanted to lure her into a trap, but he forgot to count Clint in his equations._

"_Especially the part that said that the whole attack had been a revenge for Forrester's Smorph facility and Leonor Carreiro." - Smorphs were organic robots, created by a scientist called Hemigway Forrester. Clint, Natasha, Abe, and Janet destroyed the facility where he was making them. Leonor Carreiro was Forrster's associate, a terrorist leader, who was killed by Clint. As a revenge for these two acts, Forrester burned down the hospital where they were recovering and killed Abe and Janet in the process._


	5. I made a name for myself

**I'm still alive and ready to publish another chapter. We're leaving the canon parts now. Are you ready for a brand new storyline? Well, Clint and Natasha are.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: I made a name for myself**

The door of his room opened. Clint looked up and smiled when he saw Natasha standing there.

"Hi, Nat."

"What were you thinking?" she snapped instead. "Punching an agent? How old are you, twelve? What did he say?"

She was going to find out sooner or later anyway. "He called you a monster."

"And that's why you broke his nose? Seriously?"

He didn't answer. Somehow he thought she would be glad that he defended her honor. Now he saw how stupid he had been. Natasha wasn't one for grand gestures and she preferred to defend her own honor.

"Please, don't yell at me. After Coulson and Fury, I'm pretty sure I've heard it all."

"I'm not here to yell at you. They are going to let you go."

Clint smiled. Finally! He had been sent to the Palo Alto base immediately after the incident and he had been locked in his room for the last five days. He was beginning to think that Fury was going to let him rot there.

"Great! Do we have a mission?" he stood up.

"We have a briefing," she said. "Us, Fury, Coulson, and Hill."

That meant only one thing – the briefing was going to be about the Avengers Initiative. That was not going to be the biggest fun in the world, but at least Natasha was back.

They were the last to arrive in the briefing room and once they sat down, Fury began:

"So – we have three men that can eventually become members of the Avengers Initiative. Tony Stark was not recommended and for time being he's hired as a consultant. Thor, according to Foster and Selvig, is back on his planet and he can't be reached. Dr. Bruce Banner... is not recommended," said Fury. "Agents Romanoff and Barton can look at the footage in their rooms. Agent Hill, report on the Helicarrier Project."

Hill straightened in her seat and looked at her notes. "Until last week we were working according to the plan, but we have reached a... problem. Michael Sherman, leader of the communication systems team, refuses to work. His daughter was kidnapped and he won't let his team work until she's safely back."

"The girl, Verity Sherman, is SHIELD agent herself," Coulson added. "Twenty-two years old, working as an operator on the Helicarrier Project. It is important that we bring her back alive and as soon as possible."

"And guess who's going to do that," Clint whispered to Natasha. She tried to keep her professional look, but he saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

"Who took her?" she asked.

"An extremist organization monitored by SHIELD for a long time. They're called the Red Dove. Until now they have never done anything more than talking, but a few months ago a new leader appeared. We know him only by his nickname – Scorpio. He is operating from Detroit," Coulson handed them folders with their instructions.

Clint flipped through the information about the Red Dove and Scorpio. Apparently they were fighting for world peace. They wanted to cancel all armies and intelligence services in the world and they thought that America should do the first step.

"Great, it's been ages since we've last dealt with fanatic freaks. I missed it," said Clint, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Did he ask for ransom?" Natasha looked up from her file.

"No. He just sent Sherman a message that he has his girl. He didn't even try to negotiate."

Natasha bit her lip and Clint could tell that she didn't like this. But she closed her folder and nodded. "Fine, we'll save the damsel in distress. Just get Barton a white horse and a sword."

"Sure, I'll save her on the white horse, but only if Romanoff wears a slinky black dress and plays the evil witch," he smirked.

It was good to have her back.

* * *

The plane took off and Clint fell asleep almost immediately. Natasha smiled. They were on a mission together and she was happy for now. She knew it was not going to last for long. She had to get close to Scorpio and the terrorist was much more suspicious than Stark, so no small cozy flats this time.

After landing in Detroit Natasha went to book a room in a five star hotel, while Clint disappeared. She knew he was close and even though she couldn't see him, she felt much better than at the Stark Expo, where he was miles away.

They had their man inside the Red Dove and he was supposed to meet Natasha next day and take her to a party in Scorpio's house. His name was Gerald and Natasha couldn't figure out if that was first name, surname or codename. He came to pick her up exactly at 7 pm and when she opened the door, he gasped. Natasha suppressed a smirk. Clint had been joking about the slinky black dress, but it was classic. Flaming red hair, let loose around her head, full-length black dress with a slit up to her thigh, and high heels, it never failed her. She acted like she didn't notice him checking her out and Gerald drove her to Scorpio's mansion.

The house would be impressive if Natasha hadn't been in Stark's place only days ago. But still, it was a little too expensive for an underground fanatic.

"I didn't know that political discussions pay this much," she muttered to Gerald.

"I've heard that he has a real estate company somewhere," Gerald shrugged. He wasn't too happy about Natasha. "There he is."

Scorpio was talking to a group of people. He was tall and elegant, with only one white strand in his dark hair. He saw her coming to him through the crowd and she saw that her tactical dress worked. He excused himself and went to shake Gerald's hand.

"Gerald, welcome. Who is your beautiful companion?" he asked. There was just a trace of Eastern Europe in his voice, but it wasn't typical Russian accent.

"Scorpio, this is Miss Melanie Cranesbill. She's my friend and wanted to meet you."

"It's my pleasure," she smiled.

"The pleasure is mine, Miss Cranesbill," Scorpio kissed her hand.

"Please, call me Melanie."

* * *

Clint swallowed hard when he saw her enter. He had seen her in a dress like this before, but she still took his breath away. Her every move was familiar, the tilt of her head, the way she lifted her eyebrows, but not her smile. She was faking it, acting like she was flattered by whatever Scorpio whispered in her ear, but he knew how her real smile looked and he couldn't wait to see it again.

Someone took a glass of champagne from the tray Clint was holding. Clint shook his head and started to walk through the crowd and offer champagne to the guests. They hired a lot of waiters nobody knew, for the party. So Clint had knocked one of them out, drugged him, tied him in the utility room, and took his clothes.

It took Natasha whole ten minutes before she noticed him. She must have been losing her touch. He saw her observing the room as usual and then her eyes lingered on his face for a second. Her expression didn't change but her next smile was the real one.

* * *

Scorpio was captivated by her. He barely talked to anyone else, he introduced her to his friends, and she was sure that he was going to ask her for a date before the night ends. After a couple of hours he showed her the house. By the time they reached the swimming pool he tried to get a kiss from her, but she turned her head away.

"There is no need to deny anything, Melanie," he said. "Or should I call you Natasha?"

She felt like her heart skipped a beat. Was she really that sloppy? What was wrong with her, blowing her cover the first evening?

"Why Natasha?" she asked, keeping a straight face.

"That's your name, isn't it? Natasha Romanoff, also called Black Widow. I saw you... it must have been ten years ago. Konstantin Dreykov showed me the jewels of his collection - you, Alexei, Irina, Sonya, Piotr, and more. I considered buying you from him and I remembered your face well. But you're even more beautiful now," he caressed her cheek. "You are here for the girl I suppose."

"I have been sent here to rescue her," she admitted, her mind racing. She was trying to remember every Dreykov's associate. They must have been close, Dreykov didn't sell his precious assassins on eBay, they were for his best customers only. None of those she remembered matched Scorpio. But here he was, a friend of Konstantin Dreykov, alive and well, and Natasha was going to change that.

"We have a problem, then," Scorpio said. "I'm not going to give her up."

"I said I've been sent to get her, not that I'm going to do it," she answered. "You actually made it easy for me. You wanted me, all those years ago? Here I am. For free."

"Are you offering to switch sides?"

She smiled. "I'm tired of being the good guy. I'm tired of taking orders I don't like, risking my neck for people I don't care about. I want to be free. You will give me jobs, I will decide which ones I take. You are not going to be my boss, but I'll take you as my partner."

"In which sense of the word?"

She straightened the flower in his buttonhole. "We will see."

He pulled her closer and kissed her. "Deal," he said.

* * *

_It's an act, _Clint repeated to himself. _She's just pretending to switch sides so she can get the Sherman girl._

He was perched on a window above the swimming pool and heard every word. It was time to change in his own clothes and get out of there, but when Scorpio kissed her, it took all Clint's self-control not to jump down there and strangle him. He remembered Budapest and Sonya's lips on his.

_She had no choice. He recognized her. She had to save her life somehow._

But the part about her being tired of taking orders sounded a little too honest.

No. Clint knew Natasha better than anyone. She would never work with someone who had been friends with Dreykov. And she didn't need Scorpio to be free.

He watched her and Scorpio walk back to the house. For a moment, when he was opening the door for her, she looked up and saw Clint. She raised her hand, like she wanted to straighten her hair, and he understood this was her way to tell him that everything was all right. He smiled at her and nodded.

"Good luck, Nat," he whispered.

* * *

_Liars and Killers references:_

"_Konstantin Dreykov showed me the jewels of his collection - you, Alexei, Irina, Sonya, Piotr, and more." - Irina Dreykova was Dreykov's daughter and Natasha's friend. Natasha had to kill her. Sonya was another assassin and after Natasha joined SHIELD, Sonya became her doppelganger._


	6. The man for the job

**Another Couple of Master Assassins. What is going to happen on their mission? Please, review, it's always great to hear from you.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Man For The Job**

"Agent Romanoff infiltrated Scorpio's house and I'm sure she's doing everything she can to find Miss Sherman and bring her back," Clint tried to assure the face on the screen on his laptop.

Coulson had been working on something else and Clint had to report to agent Warner. It was the worst possible solution. Daily video reports were usually just boring, but right now Clint wanted to toss the laptop out of the window.

"And you are sure that she is just acting? That she didn't betray SHIELD for real?" Warner was obviously going to report Natasha as a defector.

"Yes, I am."

"And you are aware that this mission requires speed? We can't wait until agent Romanoff infiltrates Scorpio's bed as well."

Clint was glad that he couldn't punch him through the screen. "She's a professional, just let her do her job. I'll watch her."

"I'm sure you will," said Warner with a nasty smile. "Fury told me to tell you that you have a seven days. Next week he's sending there a whole team to shoot their way to the girl."

"Tell Fury he's going to have the girl back this time next week," Clint barked and closed the laptop. A week was not much. He needed to talk to Natasha. He went to the nearest florist (which, given the part of town where he settled, was half an hour walk), and sent her flowers. He chose yellow roses, which was the code for _I need to talk to you as soon as possible._

An hour later he got text saying simply: _9 pm, gazebo, Scorpio's house_.

Well, she wasn't making it easier for him. He took a sketchbook and draw everything he remembered about the house. There was a way to get in, not easy but manageable. This time he went in his full gear, with his bow and quiver.

It took him an hour to get to the garden. Most of the time he was perched on a tree, watching the house, looking for guards, alarms, cameras, and anything else that could give him trouble.

Then he saw her, moving across the lawn like a ghost. She reached the gazebo and waited. When he was sure that nobody followed her, he climbed down from his tree and went to meet her.

"What is it? I don't know anything yet," she snapped when she saw him.

"I've got a message from Fury. We have a week, after that he sends the guys with guns."

Natasha frowned. "I can't win his trust in a week. I was lucky, he offered me to move to his house right away, but he's not an idiot."

"You don't need him to tell you where she is, do you? You can find her on your own."

"It's dangerous," she shook her head. "Even this meeting is dangerous. If she is in this house, maybe I can find her, but she might be anywhere else. Who knows how many hiding places he has?"

"It's the only shot we've got. I can try to follow him, but if anyone has a chance to find her in time, it's you."

"Fine," Natasha sighed. "I'll do my best. I'll let you know if I find something. Now, I should get back before someone starts looking for me."

Clint suddenly wanted to hug her and kiss her goodbye. He forced himself to calm down, wondering what was wrong with him.

"Good luck, Nat," he wished her and this time she could hear him.

"Thanks," she smiled. "Good luck to you too."

And then she was gone. He stood there, staring at her crossing the lawn to the house, and he didn't have a clue what was going on. He had been fine, for two years after what happened in that damn hotel room in Budapest, he hadn't been thinking about her like this. At least not often. She was his partner, the biggest taboo there was. She was Natasha Romanoff, for crying out loud, and the remaining life-span of the men allowed to kiss her ranged from one minute to three weeks, but rarely more.

_Besides we're SHIELD agents and we don't have time for things like this,_ he scolded himself and decided to focus on the mission instead.

* * *

"So, Natasha," Scorpio smiled and poured her another glass of champagne, "how do you like the house so far?"

"It's great. Much better than SHIELD living quarters, but of course there is always room for improvement," she said.

They were sitting on the roof, the sun was setting, and Natasha had four days left to find Verity Sherman. So far she didn't have any success.

"Like what?" He was getting used to her teasing.

"You don't have a tennis court."

"You play tennis?"

"Not yet, but if you don't give me a job soon, I'll have to find a hobby," she sniffed. "They didn't tell you that Black Widow is easily bored?"

"Konstantin told me that his assassins do what they're told and don't complain," Scorpio frowned.

"Well," Natasha sipped her drink, "you didn't buy me, did you? I'm not your property and I can complain all I want. If you want to stop the Helicarrier Project, you have to move quickly. They are either going to rescue the Sherman girl or find someone else to do her father's job. Fury is determined to have the project running as soon as possible."

"And you are naturally the best person to be trusted with the mission of stopping it," Scorpio smiled. Natasha knew that something was wrong. He sounded slightly playful, like stopping the project didn't really matter. And Scorpio never joked about business.

"Do you have anyone else who has been a high-ranking SHIELD agent?" she winked.

"And tell me, Natasha, what happens when your friends try to stop you?"

Her smile faded, because she suspected where this conversation was heading. "I don't have friends and I kill anyone who tries to stop me," she said harshly.

"But what if... what if it's Hawkeye? What if he's the one standing between you and your mission?" Scorpio was watching her intently, waiting for her reaction.

He hit the bullseye. Just the image of her fighting Clint hurt. She let some of that pain show on her face, but she acted like she was trying to conceal it.

"I would have to kill him too," she said, her voice shaking just enough for Scorpio to notice.

Scorpio leaned back in his chair and smiled. "You wouldn't hesitate to kill the man who saved your life multiple times, the man who worked with you for years. You work for me for four days and you ask me to trust you with a mission? I'm not an idiot, Natasha."

No, he wasn't. Her answer backfired, but she learned something. The Helicarrier Project was not his main focus. Scorpio was not someone who used the word "if" when discussing his plans.

* * *

There was a knock on the door and Clint looked through the peephole. When he saw Terence's distinctive almost white hair, he sighed in relief and opened the door.

"Just in time. Do you have it?" he asked as soon as Terence sat down on Clint's bed.

"I do, but agent Warner told me that it can get me in serious trouble," said Terence anxiously. "That I can lose my job."

"You won't. You're a special case and you would have to do something much worse to get kicked out. Believe me, I know. If Fury asks you, tell him that I threatened you. I will take all the blame, but right now we need to move fast. Did you get me the stuff?"

"I told you I did."

"All of it? Show me"

Terence pulled out a small chip and something that looked like a cross between a syringe and a drill. It looked quite scary.

"I'll inject this chip under your skin and I can track it on my laptop. It will do the job."

"Good. I just hope I won't lose an arm in the process," muttered Clint with one last look at the syringe. "Now listen. You're not going to get in any danger, you'll stay right here. I sincerely hope that agent Romanoff will get here before dawn. If she doesn't, run to the base as fast as you can and raid the place where you'll see my chip," Clint told him and hoped that the boy will remember it.

"And if she does?" asked Terence, looking slightly bewildered.

_Get her as far away from SHIELD as you can. Buy her a nice house on a Brazilian beach and give her new identity, so no Dreykov's friend can find her again. Let someone else handle it,_ Clint thought, but he knew that Nat would kill him for that. This was her battle and she fought those on her own.

"She'll know what to do."

* * *

Natasha punched a pillow and bit her lip. For the last five days she had barely slept, she was trying everything she could think of to find Verity Sherman. She spent her nights sneaking around the house, looking for secret passages, reading every piece of paper she found, and her days were dedicated to subtle interrogations of Scorpio, listening to gossiping maids, and trying to hack Scorpio's computer. So far no success and she was running out of time.

There was a knock on the door and a maid entered with a bouquet of roses.

"Someone sent those, ma'am," she said. "Anonymously."

"Thank you. Put them on the table," she pointed and waited until the maid left. Then she looked at the roses more closely. Yellow – I need to speak with you urgently. And right in the middle there was one red rose – same time and place as the last time.

Waiting until the evening was unbearable. Luckily Scorpio wasn't home that day, so she didn't have to play his evil henchman. She avoided people and nothing made her happier than the clock striking nine.

She sneaked in the gazebo, but this time Clint had already been waiting for her.

"I have an idea how to find her," he told her as soon as she was within earshot.

"You found something?"

"No, but you're going to. You have to kidnap me and hand me over to Scorpio," he announced.

"And then what? You're going to pull a Great Escape?"

Clint's grin made her very nervous. "No. You are."

"All right, Barton, stop playing a fortune teller and explain yourself."

"I have a microchip with a tracking device right here," he pointed to his shoulder. "Scorpio is going to take me to wherever he holds his prisoners. I have someone who can track that microchip and he can tell you how to get to me. You come in and save both me and the girl."

"That's a great plan and it can work – if he doesn't kill you right away, if he takes you to the same place where the girl is, and if I can actually get in and out," she snorted. He was out of his mind, he had to be. This was the craziest plan he had ever come up with.

"I'm more valuable alive, I don't suppose he has two top priority prisons, and I've always believed in you, Nat."

"Stop being cheesy, Barton."

"Besides," he ignored her last remark, "it's the best shot we've got."

She couldn't argue with that, but it was still one of the most dangerous things they've ever done. Natasha hated the idea of Clint in the hands of cruel and unpredictable Scorpio. She took a deep breath. "Fine."

Clint told her how to find the motel where he had been staying. His man should be waiting for her there. She had a vague idea where this place was and it was not that far.

"You can get there in time?"

"I think so," she nodded. "Should I punch you now?"

"Feel free," Clint smirked. She knew that he was only covering up his uneasiness, but some part of her really wanted to kill him for being so cheerful. She knew how high was the probability of him getting killed and she really didn't like the odds.

"Don't die," she told him.

"Roger that, ma'am," Clint saluted, but right after that she knocked him down.

She dragged him in the house. It took her some time to find some guards. They stared at her like idiots.

"Where is Scorpio?" she barked at them.

"The boss is out, ma'am," one of the guards stuttered out.

"Call him in, now!"

The guards shifted uneasily and exchanged a look.

"What are you waiting for? Go!" she commanded.

"Actually, he's in his office," one of them admitted. "He just doesn't want to be disturbed."

"Good," Natasha smirked and dragged Clint to Scorpio's office. She kicked the door open and pushed Clint inside so hard that he landed on the carpet.

"What's that?" Scorpio asked and slowly got out of his chair.

"Hawkeye," she said. "He was sniffing around the house. I saw him from my window and I thought you may be interested."

Scorpio looked at her intently and she thought of the conversation about her loyalties. What exactly did she prove to him? It annoyed her that she didn't know.

Scorpio pushed a button on his table. "Thank you, Natasha." Two bodyguards walked in the room. "I want to talk to him. You know what to do," he told them, pointing at Clint.

* * *

_Liars and Killers references:_

"_He had been fine, for two years after what happened in that damn hotel room in Budapest, he hadn't been thinking about her like this." - In Budapest, Natasha's doppelganger tried to get close to Clint and she kissed him. Natasha had been at the other end of town at that time._

" _Buy her a nice house on a Brazilian beach..." - A certain beach in Brazil was the first place where Clint and Natasha had been truly happy. Two silly afternoons with their common friend Abe, seaweed, and ice cream. (Hard to explain, go read it, if you hadn't already.)_


	7. The story of Jonah

**Thanks for all the reviews, you have all been very supportive to me. I welcome every new review! And welcome to all new followers. In this chapter we'll see how Clint and Natasha handle Scorpio and what comes of it.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: The story of Jonah**

Clint had to admit that he was slightly surprised that Scorpio didn't order to tie him up for the interrogation. Of course, Clint doubted that he could fight off Scorpio, his two guards, and everybody else in the complex. Besides, he had no idea where he was.

"Tell me, how does it feel to be betrayed?" asked Scorpio.

"Oh God," Clint rolled his eyes. "Are we going to do torture or Psychology 101?"

"I know what you think," Scorpio smiled. "_Natasha is coming here soon. She is going to save me. _I bet she told you she would. But do you think she's ready to go back to the cage?"

"She is not..."

Scorpio interrupted him with a laugh. "Oh, you really believe that? I know you heard what she told me that first night. She was not lying."

Clint didn't want to hear the rest of the speech. He knew that Natasha didn't like taking orders, but somehow he thought that their friendship was enough to keep her working for SHIELD. Or maybe it was just a wish, just a lie he told himself because the thought of her leaving was too unbearable.

"You are more tamed that I thought," Scorpio continued. "You don't see it any more. It's pathetic, you could become so much and you chose to be Fury's personal executioner. A dog who doesn't feel the leash. Tell me, Hawkeye, can you still make a decision by yourself?"

Clint thought of Saint Petersburg and red pigtails, of a burning hospital, of a hotel room in Budapest. "You would be surprised."

Scorpio looked at him curiously. "Surprise me, then. I have two girls in this facility. One of them walks free, the other one dies. Verity Sherman – or Natasha Romanoff. Your choice."

Then he went to the door. He hesitated on the doorstep.

"And boys?" he turned to his bodyguards. "Don't hurt him too much, but make it visible."

* * *

"Are you ready?" Natasha asked for a hundredth time. Terence was a sweet boy, but that was the last thing she needed. She sneaked out of Scorpio's mansion as soon as he left and the last hour she was stuck in Clint's room, waiting for Terence to get his equipment ready. Meanwhile Clint could have been dying.

"They went underground, I had to locate the signal. It's not that easy. But I guess we can go now," said Terence.

"I can. You're not going anywhere, kid. Just tell me what to do."

"I want to help."

"You're going to become cannon fodder," she warned him.

"Maybe not."

She didn't really have time to argue, so she just hoped he won't screw up. The place where Clint's signal led them was well outside the city. At first it looked like an empty field, but Natasha saw an old well about in the middle.

"There, it's underground. Terence, this is your last chance to stay out of trouble. Talk to Coulson, make him send some backup here, and go home," she whispered.

"You can't go alone." He sounded terrified.

"Hawkeye is in there, remember," she told him. _But we have lost so much time, he might not be fighting fit any more._

"There are going to be cameras and alarm," he said. "I can at least help you with those."

"All right," she agreed. Technology wasn't on the list of her talents. "I've got your back."

She was right, the well was an entrance. Terence managed to open it for them and they found a station of the guards quite soon. It took Natasha less than a minute to get rid of the two men in the room and when she turned, she realized, that the screens were showing here the entire facility.

"We have four floors here," she muttered. "Most of the place is empty. The prisoners are at the bottom level, of course. That must be the Verity girl," she pointed at one of the screens. "And here is Clint."

She watched as two men took turns in punching him. It looked like it had been going for some time. She narrowed her eyes. Someone was going to get badly hurt tonight.

"Fine, Terence, see where Sherman is? Once we get to the bottom level, you go to her and you get her out as fast as you can. Don't leave her until she's safely back in a SHIELD facility. No heroism, no coming back to help us. Get out, get backup." She hoped she was insistent enough to make him do as he was told.

"And you?"

Terence was really too sweet for a SHIELD agent.

"I can take care of myself."

* * *

They let him curl into a ball in the corner and left him in the darkness. There was a thousand questions in his head. How did they get Natasha? Is she all right? Does he know that she had never been on his side, not really? But whose side was she on anyway? SHIELD's or Scorpio's? Or her own? And did she know it herself? And the most important question: was he really supposed to choose one of the girls or was it another form of Scorpio's torture?

The meaning was simple – the choice was between his duty and his heart. Verity Sherman was an innocent girl, one who might be crucial to the Helicarrier Project. She was the kind of person Clint always tried to save, as an atonement for everything he had done. On the other hand was Natasha... If he chose her, she would live and save many more. But he knew a lot of SHIELD agents who wouldn't mind her death. He remembered what Warner said about her. _Shaped to a weapon from the moment she could use one. How much human can be left in a person like this? _For them, losing her would be like losing a unique device. Inconvenient, they would have to find replacement, but nothing to mourn. To Clint she was so much more. After Marty, Abe, and Janet died and Hannah was fired, Natasha remained Clint's only friend, the only person he loved.

"Hello, Hawkeye."

He looked up and saw Scorpio standing outside his cell. A guard opened the door and Scorpio with his two bodyguards entered. Clint stood up. It hurt, but he was not going to crawl before him.

"Natasha Romanoff entered the facility with one accomplice," Scorpio told him. "I have to say I am impressed with her loyalty, although I sincerely doubt she's this loyal to Nick Fury. Now I have to ask you – whom should I let go? Verity Sherman or Natasha Romanoff?"

Clint's mind raced. He needed a little more time to think.

"Who is her accomplice?" He had to be sure to make the calculations.

"Some albino boy," said Scorpio.

_So she took Terence with her. He must have insisted on coming, she would never ask him. That means she'll try to get him out as fast as possible. She'll send him to get the girl to safety and she'll come for me alone. Good._

"And what happens to me?" he asked. "Do I have a choice about that too?"

"No." Scorpio's smile was one of the nastiest he had ever seen. "I'll kill you... eventually. And if you hesitate any longer, they'll both die."

_I'm sorry, Nat._ "Let Verity Sherman go."

* * *

Natasha let Terence work on the electronic lock on Verity Sherman's cell. She stood watch as Terence opened the door and led out a terrified girl. Natasha checked that it was the same girl she saw on the pictures in her file, same short golden hair and big blue eyes, same small birthmark next to her left eye. She looked healthy enough to run.

"Good. Terence, get her out," she reminded him and handed them two guns she took from a guard she knocked out earlier. "Don't shoot each other. Go!"

She walked them to the stairs and when they headed up, she turned to the corridor that would lead her to Clint.

It wasn't to difficult to find his cell – it was the one with two guards outside. She shot them and proceeded to the cell itself. Terence gave her something like an electronic picklock. She used it to open the door and froze. Scorpio and two more men were standing there, obviously waiting for her.

"Welcome, Natasha," Scorpio greeted her. "You came for your hawk after all."

"I always do," she replied.

"That would be so sweet, if he hadn't just chose an unknown girl over you. He had a choice and he told me to let Verity Sherman go and kill you. You did so much for him and he betrayed you like this."

She looked Clint in the eyes. There was no guilt, no remorse, just confidence. His choice meant one thing – he believed that she can get both of them out anyway. Verity needed every advantage he could give her, while Natasha got out of equally bad situations. She smiled at him.

"I didn't expect anything less."

Scorpio frowned for a split of a second, but he quickly regained his poker face. "Very well, at least you're not disappointed. I'm sorry I can't say the same thing about myself."

"You didn't believe me for a second." She saw that clearly now. They both knew the truth all the time.

"I didn't. But I hoped you could be another one."

"Another what?" she raised one eyebrow.

"Another of Konstantin's kids that broke free," said Scorpio with genuine sadness.

"I did!" Natasha exclaimed. "I ran away from him, I made a name for myself, I got him killed. I'm the only one who did something like that."

Scorpio shook his head. "You've never escaped, you still have the name he gave you, and you are most certainly not the only one. You haven't heard the codename Kingfisher, have you?"

He had to be lying, there wasn't anyone else who got out. A few of them tried and they were always killed. But some annoying little voice whispered to her, that she had never seen the bodies. Maybe there were more people like her, every one of them thinking he is the only one.

"Who's that supposed to be?"

"Someone who would love to meet you, but, sadly, never will. Goodbye, Natasha Romanoff."

She was surprised and reacted a second too late. The two bodyguards caught her and tossed her across the cell. She almost landed on Clint and before she stood up again, Scorpio closed the door and disappeared.

Right after the lock clicked, the door burst into flames.

* * *

Clint exchanged a quick glance with Natasha. Fire. History was repeating itself.

"Can you fight?" she asked.

He knew his body well enough to tell that there wasn't anything broken, just a sprained wrist, and most of the cuts and bruises were just for the show, to get Natasha faster to his cell. "No problem. But I don't think we'll need to."

The small room was quickly filling with smoke and it was getting hard to breathe. Natasha tried to smash down the door and on her third try she finally succeeded. They jumped across the flames to the corridor and they froze.

It wasn't just the door. The whole facility was on fire.

Clint wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I'm really hot now, don't you think?"

"Really, Barton? Cheap jokes?" she laughed.

He smirked. "So, do we find a window?"

"Hardly, we're underground. We find the main stairs, I'm not risking an elevator."

She lead the way. Everything was burning and the smell of smoke brought up painful memories. Abe's dead body on the floor. Patients burning in their beds because there was no time to save them. And the painful knowledge that the last fire had been their fault.

But that did not matter now. Right now there was him and Natasha and they had to get out as fast as possible. They reached the staircase and just as Natasha stepped on the first step, the whole thing started to collapse.

Clint caught her and pulled her away just in time. A huge piece of railing fell right on the spot where she had stood just a second ago. He didn't let her go, he pulled her further from the stairs.

"Another way out?" he asked.

She just shrugged. They checked every part of the facility that didn't look like Hell itself yet. No emergency exits and the vents were too small. After a few minutes they ended up at the bottom of the staircase. There was little left it, just a huge pile of wreckage.

"We're trapped," said Natasha. It was a simple statement made without any emotion.

Breathing was getting harder every minute and their eyes were red and teary from the smoke.

Clint pointed at the remainder of the stairs. "Up," he said. "Less flames, less smoke."

That was all she needed. She climbed up and he followed her. They sat at the top of the pile, close, but not actually touching, and they silently waited. Flames were getting closer.

He had been weakened by the torture so he passed out first. Just as he was drifting off to the darkness, he felt like someone was kissing him on the forehead, but it had to be a dream.

* * *

_Liars and Killers references:_

"_Clint thought of Saint Petersburg and red pigtails, of a burning hospital, of a hotel room in Budapest." _- In Saint Petersburg Clint decided not to kill Natasha (she was wearing pigtails when she came to meet him). The hospital fire was the first time he and Natasha truly fought as partners, the first time they decided to work together. In the hotel room in Budapest Clint had to decide whether or not is the woman in front of him the real Natasha.

"_After Marty, Abe, and Janet died and Hannah was fired..." _- Marty was Clint's friend, who died a horrible death because of Clint's mistake. Hannah was a girl Clint had an affair with, but she had been fired from SHIELD after she had an affair with a traitor.

"_Abe's dead body on the floor. Patients burning in their beds because there was no time to save them. And the painful knowledge that the last fire had been their fault."_ - All references to the hospital fire, a revenge for a terrorist leader Clint killed.


	8. Spy, not a soldier

**No, I'm not dead, and yes, I have a new chapter. We left Clint and Natasha unconscious in the middle of a burning building. What happens next?**

**Please, review, I'm happy to see that someone read this.**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Spy, not a soldier**

Natasha was lying on her stomach and the smell in the air was certainly hospital. That was the first thing she realized when she woke up. After that her thoughts took a less pleasant direction. Her back was on fire and her throat was dry as a desert. She tried to move, but it hurt too much.

A nurse appeared at her side.

"Lie still, agent," she said. "You don't want to hurt more than you already do."

"Clint," Natasha managed to croak.

"Agent Barton is alive and the odds of his survival are very auspicious. Now stay still and I'll get the doctor."

The doctor came five minutes later. He was a middle-aged man with big fake smile.

"What happened?" she asked hoarsely. "I remember the fire, Clint passed out..." _I kissed him on the forehead, a goodbye kiss, because I was sure we were going to die, _"and that's all."

"You lost consciousness and you rolled down the rubble. The rescue team found you just in time. You sustained severe burns on your back. We've kept you in artificial sleep for four days, during which we began with plastic surgery."

"Plastic surgery?" Natasha was confused for a moment.

"Director Fury made it very clear that he wishes us to repair your skin as much as we can. To quote him, he told us that he wants a beauty, not a beast," said doctor in an awkward attempt to cheer her up.

"The old liar," Natasha sighed, not caring to explain herself to the doctor. Fury wanted the beauty because it concealed the beast beneath. "Can I see how bad it is?"

The doctor sent the nurses for two mirrors and she could look at her back. They told her it was bad, but she didn't expect it to be this bad.

The upper half of her back and the back of her neck were burnt to various degrees from just a very red skin on the right side, to blisters somewhere in the middle, to pieces of blackened skin on the left side. Most of the hair on the back of her head was gone too, but the skin there remained relatively intact. They cut the rest of her hair very short.

The person in the mirror looked like some kind of an alien. Even when the hand in the mirror moved like hers, her brain refused to accept that the marred skin is part of her body.

_What's Clint going to say when he sees this? _It was vain, but she couldn't help herself. There were going to be scars – a lot of scars. She was going to get herself some turtlenecks and scarfs to cover up the neck until her hair grows back. And buy a wig so she can keep working. No more backless dresses.

"You said something about plastic surgery?"

"We have orders to make you skin look like before. It's going to take time, but we have some new technology that might save you your looks and us the pleasure of being fired by the director." The doctor made a nervous face and Natasha could imagine, how creative Fury had been in his threats.

When she looked closer, she could see tiny scars in places where they had already started to work on her. She ran her hand through her painfully short hair. Her body was her weapon of choice, the best one she had, and nobody messed with Black Widow's weapons. Scorpio was going to pay for this.

* * *

The door of Clint's room opened and he saw Terence standing there with a girl Clint didn't know. It was his first visit after he had woken up that morning.

"Hey," he said. "Come in."

"Hey. How are you doing?" smiled Terence and pulled a chair to the side of Clint's bed. "This is Verity Sherman," he gestured to the girl, who sat next to him.

"Good to see that you got out all right," Clint told her and looked at her more closely. So this was reason why he and Natasha almost died. She looked so normal, just a girl of twenty two. The same age Natasha was in Budapest. He couldn't help but compare those two. It wasn't fair to compare any woman to Natasha, but he tried. Verity looked nice, seemed pleasant, the kind of girl he had dreamed of all those years ago, before the red pigtails.

"Thanks to you," said Verity, interrupting his thoughts. "I'm glad that you are okay."

"Well, okay is not the term I'd use, but thank you," he faked a smile. Inside he kept wondering about the comparison between Verity and Natasha.

"What's wrong?" Terence frowned.

"Legs. Burns all the way up to knees. Won't be walking for a few weeks," Clint made a face. Fury apparently bribed the whole Health Department to get the best surgeons to work on him and Natasha, but not even Fury could speed the healing process. "Do you know something about Natasha? They just told me that she'll live, but nothing else."

"That's what they told us when we asked. She woke up yesterday, so I guess that means she's better than you," Terence shrugged.

Suddenly the door opened and a slim figure in a hospital robe entered. She looked a little unsure of herself, something not usually associated with Natasha Romanoff.

"Speaking of devil," Terence got up and offered her his chair.

She sat down, looking straight at Clint. "How are you?" she asked. "They told me you can't walk." She acted calm, but he saw what Terence and Verity didn't. She was wearing a wig.

"I'll be fine. It'll heal eventually. What happened to your hair?"

"What do you think?" she smirked. "I was inspired by you haircut. Terence, Verity, can you leave us alone for a moment?"

"Sure," Terence headed to the door, but Verity hesitated.

"Thank you both," she said. "I'm sorry this all happened because of me."

"It didn't," said Natasha. "It could have been anything, you, some other daughter, or even a piece of equipment. You just happened to be the one Scorpio chose."

Verity wasn't sure if that was a good thing, so she muttered a goodbye and followed Terence out of the room. Clint turned back to Natasha and allowed himself to be relieved that she was alive.

"So, what now?" he asked.

"Well, Scorpio's gone and he's done an amazing job covering up his tracks. The analytic team can't find him. I didn't have much time, but I tried a couple of Janet's tricks. No success either," Natasha shrugged. "I guess it's his move."

"You are not that indifferent. You want to find him," Clint observed.

Natasha's unconcerned attitude disappeared in a second. She frowned and sighed. "I can't keep a secret from you, can I? I _need _to find him. I need to talk to him, I need to find out who he is and why did he know Dreykov so well. But I have to heal first and I have no idea where he is. So I suppose we do some community service for not being inconspicuous enough and chase him when we know which way to run."

"Community service?"

"Rookies."

"What?"

"Coulson thought that until they make us pretty again, we can be useful in the basic training." Natasha was smiling now. "Apparently the rookies can gain a lot from our field experience."

"So... we are on a teaching duty?" Clint couldn't believe it. "And Fury actually signed this?"

"Yep." There was a mischievous gleam in Natasha's eyes and Clint knew that his expression mirrored hers. He threw his head back and laughed.

"Oh, this is gonna be fun!"

* * *

Natasha chose a simple red tank top, black cargo pants and combat boots. She left her wig in her room and made sure her burns are clearly visible. She wasn't going to spare the rookies and she knew that Clint was going to help her the best he could.

They met in the gym. Coulson and Hill were already there. She stood next to them just as the gym door opened and Terence pushed in a wheelchair with smirking Clint.

The rookies were lined up and they tried to look as impressive as they could. There was eleven of them, three girls and eight boys, all in their early twenties. A couple of them was pale as death and one of the boys looked like he was going to throw up. Natasha could feel them staring at her burns and she could almost hear their thoughts. _How did she get them? _She wondered if they knew who she was.

"Welcome to SHIELD," said Coulson. "I'm agent Coulson, this is agent Hill, and feel free to forget it, because you're probably not going to see us again until the end of your basic training. That is going to take three months and it's main purpose is to give you an overview of SHIELD's activities and prepare you for advanced training. If your instructors don't think you're ready, they won't let you to the next level. And you are very lucky." The last word had a slightly ironical tone. "You are the only newcomers in history that are going to be lectured by our best operatives – agent Romanoff and agent Barton. They are going to teach you the basics of the undercover, combat, and other field work. They have agent Holzmann," he pointed at Terence, "to help them with some lessons concerning technology. Now I'm going to leave you in their capable hands. Good luck."

Coulson and Hill walked past the line and when they got to the end, Coulson stopped and turned to the rookies.

"And don't piss them off," he told them quietly.

Hill shot him an angry look and steered him out of the room. Natasha suppressed a smirk.

"Okay, kids, you can call me the Black Widow or simply the Widow. This is Hawkeye and Terence. We expect you to do your best and if you do that, I don't see why we shouldn't get along." She made a pause to let her words sink in. "Of course, yours and our opinion on what's your best might be slightly different."

"We have suffered some minor injuries recently," Clint added. "So it's going to take a while before we can participate in the combat training. But there is a first thing you all need to be able to do. Does anyone know what is it?"

The rookies looked at each other uneasily.

"Feel free to speak, we're not in first grade," Natasha encouraged them. There was a moment of silence and then they started to give ideas.

"Shoot a gun?"

"Work with a computer?"

"Keep calm?"

"All useful skills," Natasha nodded, "but the most important thing is to know when to dodge." Suddenly she pulled out a gun and shot all the rookies. They stared at the paintball stains on their shirts and in some cases skin.

"We'll have to work on that," she commented. "Remember, we can shoot you any time during the training. You always have to expect a paintball or a blunt arrow. Hawkeye, can we get the ring, please?"

Clint shot a single blunt arrow at a control panel at the wall. He hit the right button, the floor opened and a full training ring appeared.

"And don't count on a lucky miss," she added.

After a couple of hours Natasha realized that she was enjoying the training. The rookies were strangely pure in the way she had never been. They were normal. She saw them chatting during the breaks, laughing together, and even exchanging tips during the exercise. In a couple of years they would all have their missions and their eyes would gain the slightly distant look of people who know too many secrets and can't share them, but right now they were just a group of kids.

And Natasha was determined to teach them how to survive what was ahead.

* * *

"_I tried a couple of Janet's tricks." - Janet Kirk taught Natasha about hacking and breaking computer security._


	9. Don't play well with others

_A new chapter. Clint and Natasha are going to teach the rookies a valuable life lesson. With a little cliffhanger at the end. Sorry for the delayed update, but I'm working on my graduation paper and it's devouring most of my time and energy._

* * *

**Chapter 8: Don't play well with others**

"Do you think she's a screamer?"

Clint stopped right behind the gym door. The rookies were already in, probably stretching before training, and they were chatting as usual. He recognized the voice of Boyd Mitchell, their most promising fighter and most arrogant jerk.

"Don't talk about her like that," said a scared girl's voice. May Wotton, timid but clever and a wonderful strategist.

Clint didn't know why he listened behind the door like a schoolboy, but something about their tone told him that they weren't discussing a fellow recruit. He and Natasha had been teaching them for almost two months now and they knew their pupils pretty well. There was only one _she_ that scared them so much.

"C'mon, May, we all know that she's banging Barton. I just wonder what she'd be like in the bed," Boyd continued.

"Like you'd ever know," snickered Natasha quietly behind Clint. He didn't hear her coming and when he turned, he saw her smiling. That was not a good sign.

"I can't picture her sleeping with anyone," said another boy, Robert Davis. "I mean, does she ever take off that cat suit?"

"Did you even listen when she talked about undercover yesterday?" Boyd laughed. "Do you think she could've gone to the Vienna State Opera in a cat suit?"

"But a dress? High heels and everything? Can you even fight in that?" Robert wondered.

"Start the lesson without me," Natasha whispered. "I'll be right back."

Clint still had difficulties walking, but thanks to the amazing doctors he didn't need the wheelchair anymore. He waited until Natasha disappeared and then he entered the gym. The rookies fell silent the very moment he opened the door. May Wotton looked downright guilty.

"Fine, kids, we do the climbing today," he announced and pointed to the climbing wall. "Just remember to watch out for my arrows and concentrate. You know the drill and I want some personal records beaten today. It can save your life one day."

He watched them get their harnesses, but most of his mind was with Natasha. What was she planning?

His curiosity was satisfied after about twenty minutes. She opened the door with such a force that they slammed into the wall. Every head in the room turned to her and Clint heard a couple of gasps. Robert Davis actually fell off the climbing wall, but luckily he was only a meter above the ground. Nobody even noticed him.

Natasha's hair hadn't grown back properly yet and her burn scars were still visible. They looked much better now, but they were impossible to miss. Yet somehow she still looked damn sexy. She was wearing the dress she had for Scorpio's party, the full-length black one with a slit up to her thigh. She even put the high heels on.

She went straight to Clint. He pulled himself together because he understood the point she was trying to make. This was going to be fun, although Clint would enjoy it much more if they weren't just acting as lovers.

"Hello, honey," she purred and Clint felt his newly healed knees go soft. For a moment he wasn't sure if he was able to pull it off.

"You look lovely," he told her with a smile.

"Coulson called me off. He wants me to get some info out of some idiot with an over-sized ego. I'll have to spend the night out." She was so close that their noses almost touched.

"That's too bad," he answered and put one hand on her hip. "I had plans." The other hand slipped up her thigh and under her dress.

"That's too bad," she agreed. He felt her hand on his belt. She leaned in as if for a kiss but just before their lips connected, they jumped apart and shot paintballs at the rookies – Clint with the gun Natasha kept under her dress, Natasha with the gun from Clint's belt. Within a second all the rookies with the exception of May Wotton were "dead".

"Okay, morons, line up," Natasha called in her normal voice. She tossed Clint his gun and when he caught it, he realized that his hands were shaking. _Dammit, Nat, what are you doing to me?_

"That was fighting dirty," complained Boyd as he sauntered to his place.

Natasha was next to him in a second and she slapped him. "And who do you think you're going to fight, Boy Scouts? Out there are people who would kill you because you looked at them funny. This is about the fairest fight you'll get from them." She turned to all of the rookies. "You made one mistake. You got distracted. You let your personal emotions and thoughts get in the way. Remember, this is the kind of thing that gets you killed."

Clint looked at her and he suddenly realized one thing – she wasn't talking about the kids. She was talking about them. In that moment one of her deepest fears showed itself a little bit. He knew it because he shared it. After the fire the only thing that haunted his dreams was the terrible choice Scorpio presented to him – his duty or his heart. He chose duty and almost got Natasha killed. Every time he looked at her scars, he realized they were his fault.

He made the right choice, but he was scared that he wouldn't be able to do it again.

* * *

Natasha signed the last paper and smiled. This was the end of their basic training group. All eleven rookies were moving on to the higher level and Clint and Natasha were going to return to their regular duties.

She kind of liked the kids. She liked to watch them improve and learn. During the three months, Boyd Mitchell became a little more humble (although it did take a few kickings of his ass), May Wotton finally stopped being afraid of her own shadow, and Robert Davis learned to be quiet and still for more than ten minutes.

When Clint entered her room with Coulson right behind him, she knew that something was wrong. They all sat around her little conference table, she put the paperwork away and looked at them expectantly.

"They found Scorpio," said Clint finally. "Or a track, at least. He's in Russia and they are sending a team to hunt him down. You are going to lead it."

"I'm getting a team?" It was almost impossible to believe. She was hardly a team player. Then another realization hit her. "What about you?"

"We need one of you elsewhere," said Coulson. "Agent Barton recommended you."

_He is doing it again_, she thought. _He is giving me the opportunity I want._ She looked him in the eye and she hoped he understood how grateful she was.

"And what are you going to do?" she asked him.

"I'm going back to New Mexico. They need an operative for a new facility there. Basically, I'm babysitting. Couldn't let you do that," he smirked. He was right, if she was shut at one place in the middle of nowhere for too long, she would kill someone. "And don't think I got the short end of the stick. You're getting Warner for a deputy."

She sighed. "I want a guarantee that he won't kill me."

"Please, solve your personal affairs in your free time. Agent Warner is going to do his best to accomplish the mission and I expect no less from you," Coulson said coldly.

"Of course," she said with a sweet fake smile. "Can I at least pick up some more members of my team? I think Terence Holzmann would make a nice addition, or maybe..."

"We have a meeting, tomorrow, nine o'clock, room number 59. We'll discuss it there," Coulson promised and left the room.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Natasha.

"He asked for a desk job and Fury said no. I think there's a woman involved," Clint shrugged.

"So you let me have the fun job. Why? And don't say you can't stand Warner," she pointed a finger at him.

"I figured you want to hunt Scorpio down much more than I do. You need your answers. Just promise to call me first if you need a sniper."

"Sure thing," she smiled, but inside she felt just sad. She didn't want to leave her Hawk.

* * *

Clint hadn't seen Natasha for a few months. He was sent to New Mexico and he was bored to tears there. The scientists were playing with the glowing blue cube all day and his only work was to make sure nobody unauthorized gets in. He got used to sitting on a sidewalk high above the equipment and watching everything from a distance. The scientists started to call it "The Nest" and not even Fury's repeated orders could make him come down. He solved the Rubik's cube a couple of times and he wrote about a hundred letters for Natasha. He never sent them because he couldn't figure out what exactly he wanted to tell her. They talked from time to time. She was busy but she tried to call him at least twice a month. Between her calls he was lonelier than he had ever been.

Sometimes he even wished that the cube would explode or pop up an alien or something. It would at least give him something to do.

The big surprise came in May. Fury sent a helicopter for Clint and his orders sounded quite urgent. When Clint arrived in Palo Alto, the first thing he saw was an overexcited Coulson.

"They found him! They found him in the ice and he is alive!" he told Clint, beaming like he found out that Santa is real.


	10. There are always men like you

_Thanks to all of you who still stick with me and read this._

_As you can see, the next chapter is up. Sorry for the delay, I have a lot of schoolwork now._

_This is the last chapter before the movie events come up, so enjoy. Expect some action and some sweet moments. Check out my Black Widow one-shot Widow's Farewell and please review._

* * *

**Chapter 9: There are always men like you**

"Who is alive?"

But Clint didn't get his answer. He was sent to the briefing room and when he saw who was there, he smiled as broadly as Coulson. Natasha smiled back, but before they could say anything, Fury came in with Hill and Coulson.

"There has been an unexpected turn of the events," said Fury. "We have discovered Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. He was perfectly preserved in ice and against all odds he's still alive."

"Alive? After sixty years as an iceberg?" Natasha looked impressed. "I wonder what would _kill _this guy."

"He woke up yesterday," Fury added.

"_Woke up_?" Clint was astonished. "You mean we have a walking and talking Captain America?"

"Oh yes," said Coulson, who was probably going to explode soon.

"And we have another Avenger, who is available and mentally stable," Hill pointed out. "Please, read Rogers' file. If we're ever going to need a team leader, this is it."

"Team leader? You mean Rogers would give orders to Tony Stark?" Natasha laughed. "He might have been friends with his dad, but Tony is a completely different story. It's not going to work."

"Don't be so pessimistic, agent Romanoff. I believe that in the right circumstances it can work just fine," Fury assured her. "How is your mission going?"

"We're getting closer, but it's going to take a little more time," Natasha replied briefly.

"Good. Agent Barton?"

"I am training for the next World Championship in Sudoku, but besides that everything is nice and quiet," Clint made a bored face.

Fury didn't say anything and after some additional information about Rogers he dismissed them. Clint took the opportunity to invite Natasha for a coffee.

"I have to go soon," she said when they sat down. "We have a major raid tomorrow and I can't leave it to Warner."

"So, you're enjoying the leadership?"

She stirred her coffee. "Sort of. I miss you. They are all scared of me, of course. But I would never get that far without them. Fury wants Terence close, but he lets me borrow him from time to time. I got May Wotton and she has excellent eye for detail. Verity Sherman is there too, she is our negotiator when we need something from the Russian government. It was hard, but I learned to trust them with some things. Trust them that they can do their job."

And suddenly Clint realized what he wanted to tell her when he was writing all those letters and at the same time he realized that he mustn't say a word. She was in the middle of something she needed to do and he had no right to pull her out of there. Even though all the time he wanted her to come back to him.

* * *

"I am taking point," Natasha said and her tone hinted that there was no point in arguing. "Warner, I need you in the headquarters, in case something happens to me, you take the command."

She didn't like the decision. Natasha still didn't trust him, but Warner was the senior agent here and he had proven himself a good commander and a loyal agent.

So, this was it. They had chased Scorpio all over the world and they finally found his lair in Madagascar. Tonight she was going to find out who Scorpio really was.

"With all due respect," said Warner, "we should wait for the backup."

"I'm not letting him get away again. You know what to do if the backup arrives. Agent Wei, you will guard the back door, agent Gardner, you will protect agent Holzmann. Terence, give us a sign when you cut off the communication. Any questions? Good, let's go."

The sun was setting and it painted the jungle gold. Natasha walked out of the headquarters and went down to the beach, her favorite place. On her first day she had ditched the headquarters and lain in the sand for hours, pretending she was in Brazil. A small part of her wished to do it again, but there was no time for that.

She relied on a small team, only her and four others, all good fighters. Natasha presumed it would be enough. Scorpio's mansion resembled the one he had in Detroit - big, luxurious and difficult to protect. It was a hideout, not a fortress. Terence gave them the sign to attack and Natasha kicked down the front door. Scorpio's guards tried to stop them, but her team sliced through them. They moved through the house, looking for their man.

Natasha was the first who entered the huge living room. It looked empty, but she wasn't going to rely on one glance. She made two steps forward when she heard movement behind her.

"Hello, Natasha," said a familiar voice behind them. She turned and there he was with about a dozen of his biggest bodyguards.

Today Scorpio left his usual suit in the wardrobe. He was dressed for combat and armed only with a long hunting knife. Somehow Natasha guessed that the blade would be poisoned. Before she could do anything, he attacked.

Her team was busy with the bodyguards so Natasha faced Scorpio alone. He was a little stronger and a little slower, but he knew too well how to use his advantages. Natasha had met only three people who were his equals. First was Irina and Natasha had had Clint to help her in that fight. Second was Sonya and she died because Natasha went a little berserk in that fight. And Natasha had never really beaten the last one – Clint himself. So what chances did she have against Scorpio?

She held her ground well and her only hope was to hold on until one of her team was free to help her. Unfortunately, Scorpio could use the environment just as well as she could, which she found out when he kicked a Ming Dynasty vase under her feet. She tripped and before she could roll away, he knelt on her arms and raised his knife.

But instead of a killing blow the knife fell on the floor. Both Scorpio and Natasha were staring at his hand, which was pierced by an arrow.

_Clint. _He was there, already reaching for another arrow and his eyes burned with anger. He was going to shoot to kill.

Scorpio snatched his knife but, instead of killing Natasha or going after Clint, he slashed his own chest. The cut was not too deep, certainly not fatal, but the poison would do it's work.

"No!" It was the first word Natasha said aloud since she had entered the house. She needed to hear what he knew about Dreykov. Scorpio collapsed on the floor and she knelt next to him.

"I thought you didn't break free from Konstantin," Scorpio told her. "But you did – just in a different way. We would have made quite a team – the Black Widow and the Kingfisher."

_You haven't heard the codename Kingfisher, have you? _His words, just before he left them to burn, had been bothering Natasha for almost two years. Until now.

"You are Kingfisher? You were one of Dreykov's kids, weren't you?"

"Yes. I ran away, just like you. Built my own little empire. After many years I reappeared as Scorpio and offered Konstantin cooperation. He never found out who I was. And when you escaped, I tried to help you. I did all I could to keep Konstantin and Irina off your trail. I wanted to find you later, and make you my partner. Only he got there first," he glanced at Clint.

"I see," whispered Natasha. "You thought I would become something more than a spy."

"Clever girl. You are still the Black Widow, but it doesn't have to be so bad, does it?" Scorpio grasped her hand. His speech was already slurry like he was drunk or very sleepy. "Even a Dreykov's assassin can have a good life, right?"

"Only if he runs away," she said. "But it doesn't have to be so bad."

It was absurd. She had been ready to kill him and she would have, if she had had her chance. He was another man who wanted to use her for his own purposes. And yet here she was, holding his hand in his last moments.

Scorpio was wrong. She wasn't free. The monster Dreykov made was still there, waiting for it's chance. It would love to go on a killing spree, just like after the hospital fire. And it saved lives from time to time. She had always known it, but only then she accepted it. Finally, after all those years, she found peace.

She couldn't just stop being the Black Widow, but it didn't have to be so bad, did it?

* * *

The next morning Clint and Natasha walked on the beach. They could see the outline of the Helicarrier far from the shore. This was its maiden voyage as a ship, but it had yet to wait for its first flight.

"It would be great to be there when it takes off," said Clint with a dreamy look in his eyes. "I'm still not sure something this big _can _fly, but Stark and Terence swear that it's going to work."

"Hill should let you. They can't keep you underground forever," said Natasha.

"It's not all horrible. Selvig has some pretty interesting stories. After I heard all about Thor four times, he started teaching me astrophysics at lunch. Coulson drops by from time to time. And... yeah, that's about it."

Natasha smiled and Clint's heart leaped. She looked so beautiful. All her scars healed and her hair reached her shoulders now. Her smile might have been a little sadder and a little more rare, but it still made her look radiant. And moments like these were the most precious because she smiled like this only when they were alone.

"I need to go back to Russia," she said and the little smile faded. "I must unravel the rest of Scorpio's net and destroy it. And I should make sure that there are no other Dreykov's kids running around."

"And I have my glowing blue cube to guard," Clint sighed. He hated when they were separated.

There was a moment of silence. Clint wanted to ask her something and found out that he needed more courage for a simple question than he needed for a fight.

"Nat? Back when we were in Scorpio's prison... right before we passed out... I didn't imagine that kiss, did I?" he said finally and held his breath.

She avoided his gaze. "I thought we were going to die."

"Did I?" he pressed.

It was her turn to be brave. After what seemed like an eternity she shook her head. "No, you didn't imagine anything."

He caught her hand and it was a good sign that she didn't pull away.

"When you're back from Russia and I'm back from New Mexico, we should talk."

"Yes, I think we should. And it's going to be a long talk."

And there it was, the little smile only for him.


	11. Pull me out right now

**Another chapter, yay! We finally got to the movie part. After this one, only three more chapters to go, plus an epilogue. Thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows, I appreciate that. I still keep Clint' POV, even though it's not really Clint right now.**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Pull me out right now**

_Barton has been compromised._

The sentence was stuck in her head all the way to India and even now, when a Quinjet was carrying her and Bruce Banner to the Helicarrier, she felt like Coulson was standing next to her and saying it over and over again. Verity Sherman had told Natasha the story of a Norse god, magical scepter, and glowing blue cube. Natasha still had trouble believing it, but that was not the matter now. They had Clint. They made him try to kill Fury and Hill. She remembered the archive room in Budapest where Fury and Hill were willing to risk their lives for her and Clint. Did he forget that? And was it even Clint or did they replace him with something else?

Of course, there was a huge emergency. Tesseract had been stolen and it was in the wrong hands, there was the possibility of Earth being destroyed, but none of that seemed to matter.

_Barton has been compromised._

She glanced at Bruce Banner, who was sitting across the aisle. She tried not to show it, but she was terrified of him. She had seen the footage of the Hulk. He reminded her of some things she had met before.

"Agent Romanoff, the director wants you to come in," said Verity. She was speaking quietly, like there was a dying person in the room.

Natasha got up and moved to the front of the Quinjet where they had a communication station. Fury was already online and on screen. She put on the headphones.

"Did you bring it?" she asked before Fury could open his mouth.

"Coulson brought it with him. It's on the Helicarrier. Did you get _him_?" said Fury.

"He's coming," she confirmed.

"Good. We asked Stark to come and Coulson is bringing Rogers. They can make a team."

"A team?" Natasha stopped herself for saying that too loud. She didn't want Banner to feel offended. "I mean, you should really give up that idea. The Initiative is not going to work. You don't have your Avengers. You can use Captain America, you can use Tony Stark, but you're not going to make them work together."

"That's not your call to make," said Fury coldly. "You will get Banner here and you will help me take care of our special guests. No running away after Barton."

"Anything else?" she growled.

There was nothing else and Fury's face disappeared. Natasha realized she was fighting back tears. She had never felt so lonely. She had always been the bad guy, the monster, the one they should all watch out for, and Clint had always been the one to bring her back. He had saved her in Saint Petersburg and again in Sao Paulo. Now it was her turn and she wasn't sure she could do it.

* * *

"So, Barton, tell me about Bruce Banner."

Barton knew that Fury didn't trust Banner enough to use the Hulk, that he never intended to call him in, that the Hulk couldn't be controlled. He also knew that Banner was a top expert on gamma radiation and probably the only person able to find the Tesseract, especially if combined with Tony Stark.

"Tell me more about this Tony Stark."

Barton had seen Stark's new tower, he had seen his red and gold suit. He had seen the reports on the shrapnel in Stark's chest, the footage from Stark Expo, and the interviews where he came off as vain, overconfident, and narcissistic.

"And what about Steve Rogers?"

Barton had heard about Captain America's love for his country, his confusion at waking up in a different time, his grief over all the people he had lost. He had heard about Captain's leadership, his bravery in fight and his famous shield.

His Master had a wonderful voice, both soothing and powerful. Barton trusted him, because Master was going to set things right. Master was going to destroy the enemies and he was going to give him Her. But to do that he needed Barton's cooperation.

So he told him everything.

"Good. Now I need you and Selvig to build something for me."

* * *

Natasha liked Rogers. She had to smile when she saw him amazed by the Helicarrier. He seemed to be a nice guy, the kind of a man every girl was supposed to want in her life. Even though Natasha wanted someone completely different, she would choose giving a tour to Rogers over showing Banner his lab any time. The problem was she didn't have a choice.

"So, this Tesseract, what does Fury want with it?" asked Banner casually.

"It might become a source of clean energy," she explained. "Selvig was investigating it's potential."

"And why is a military agency working on this?"

She thought she had been only afraid of the Hulk, but Bruce Banner was getting annoying even in a not-green form. "We're not military and we do not specialize in aggressive operations. We monitor and evaluate the possibilities."

"So I am... a possibility?" For a moment he sounded a little hurt and Natasha almost felt sorry for him. Her emotions resembled a roller coaster ride lately.

"In Fury's eyes we all are. Here, this is your playground. Have fun."

She left Banner in his lab and headed for her room. She needed a moment for herself, a moment to rest and think of a way to save Clint. But her bad luck hadn't ended yet. She ran into Warner.

"So, Barton defected, huh? We all expected it, you know. He has always had a soft spot for traitors and enemies," he sneered.

Suddenly she thought that his nose needed one more fracture.

"He was kidnapped," she corrected him. The Clint she knew would never try to kill Fury or Hill.

"You think? From what I've heard it looked pretty much like a treason," Warner said.

"In that case you should get ready. He will be coming for you."

It was a stupid thing to say, but it did make her feel better. She made a mental note to invite Warner for a friendly sparring session later. Somebody needed to beat the living crap out of this man and Natasha was going to take care of it.

* * *

Barton didn't need to sleep or rest, so he could work on full capacity. Finally he found what Selvig needed.

"Where did you find all these people?" Selvig asked.

Barton looked around. There was Hannah Mackay, his ex-lover who left him for a traitor. She was happy to come and help against SHIELD. Next to her was a minion of Hemingway Forrester, a mad scientist Barton had killed in London. There had been people from the bankrupt Hammer Industries, people from Scorpio's Red Dove, and from other organizations wiped out by SHIELD.

"SHIELD has no shortage of enemies, doc. Is this the stuff you need?"

Selvig confirmed it and started babbling about anti-protons and some other stuff Barton didn't understand, so he tuned the scientist out.

The Tesseract gave people what they wanted, or at least a way to get it. It showed Selvig the ultimate truth and a new universe. With Barton it was a little more complicated. It showed him Her. He didn't know Her name, but he knew that She was beautiful and deadly and he needed Her. But to get Her he needed to follow his Master. He would be a loyal servant and in the end Master was going to give Her to him. Master wanted Selvig's machine and Selvig needed the iridium. Barton gets the iridium, he gets Her. So, when Master asked him what did he see when the Tesseract woke him up, he said simply:

"My next target."

* * *

After Barton and his Master had their plan ready, Master asked for one more thing.

"Tell me about this woman."

He passed him a photo of a beautiful redhead. Barton knew her name immediately.

„This is the Black Widow. She is a spy and an assassin."

„Tell me more. Tell me about her fears, about her regrets."

„I was the one who brought her to SHIELD. I saw a potential in her and she agreed to work for Fury. After a few months our base was infiltrated by Irina Dreykova, daughter of Konstantin Dreykov, the man who made her what she is now. Dreykov was her personal nightmare, but his daughter used to be her friend. They fought and the Widow killed her."

Master listened intently, so Barton continued.

„She considers herself a monster. Dreykov used drugs to make her kill, but she killed Irina Dreykova in cold blood. It haunted her for years and sometimes I think it still does.

After that they made us a team and send us to Brazil..."

Barton hesitated. There was something about a beach. He was sure he met Her there. But Master wouldn't be interested. That was Barton's personal... and it didn't concern the Black Widow anyway.

„It was an undercover mission in Sao Paulo and everything went well at first. But they recognized the Widow and captured her. They gave her the drug again and turned her on us. She killed innocent people, including one of ours, and tried to kill me. She got better eventually, but it is another one of her nightmares.

Some time after Sao Paulo we went on a mission and we were injured. The hospital they took us to burned down. Revenge of one of Dreykov's people. Many people died there..."

Barton knew someone important had died there and She had been there as well. But it had nothing to do with the Black Widow.

"She blames herself for that fire. She feels like her presence killed all those people..."

He hesitated again. After the hospital fire the Black Widow disappeared. There was only Her and Master never wanted to know about Her.

„What else?" Master asked. „Don't tell me that Dreykov's daughter, Sao Paulo and the hospital fire are the only things that disturb the Black Widow's sleep. What happened after the fire?"

„We hunted Dreykov down," Barton said simply. „And we have never had any nightmares about that."

* * *

_Liars and Killer references:_

"_She remembered the archive room in Budapest where Fury and Hill were willing to risk their lives for her and Clint." - In Budapest, Dreykov had them trapped in an old archive. He offered to let Fury, Hill, and Coulson go if they give him Clint and Natasha. They refused without even considering it._

"_He had saved her in Saint Petersburg and again in Sao Paulo." - Saint Petersburg was when he brought her to SHIELD. Sao Paulo was when they turned her against him by using drugs._

_I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory._


	12. Cognitive recalibration

**Hi, another chapter. After this one two more to go.**

**This one has a lot of scenes taken from the movie, written from either Natasha's or Clint's point of view. I originally wanted to avoid that, but I could't leave out certain parts.**

**Thank for all the reviews, and please tell me your opinions.**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Cognitive recalibration**

Natasha hated having Loki around. From the moment she picked up Stark, Rogers, and Thor in the middle of the Alps and they brought the recaptured god on board, she felt like something was way too wrong. From what they told her, she understood that Loki had about a thousand chances to escape and didn't. That was not right. He was planning something.

"I'm going to talk to him," she told Fury. "See what I can find out."

"Do you think you can handle it? Last time it was personal for you we ended up surrounded by giants," Fury reminded her.

"And we took down one of the biggest crime lords of this century. I can handle it. I am an interrogation expert after all."

So she walked down to the prison block and approached Loki's cage. He smiled when he saw her, a sly, creepy smile, like he wanted to show that he knew more about her than she thought. He started to talk about how he expected her, but she cut in.

"What have you done to agent Barton?"

"I've merely expanded his mind." Loki smiled like he had done the best thing for Clint. He reminded her of Dreykov so much it took all her willpower not to kill him on the spot. Instead she forced herself to come a little closer.

"And once you're done, once you're the king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, agent Romanoff?"

_Of course it is,_ she wanted to scream. _But that's not why I'm doing this. I'm not the kind of person who would burn the world for love. That's what children do. No, I have to set things right. For Saint Petersburg. For Sao Paulo. For him._ It was funny how clear everything seemed now.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt."

"Tell me," he dared her.

She considered it. Abe never figured out how she got so good at interrogations. She told him, right before he died, that it was because she was always telling the truth. Maybe a little honesty was the way to fight a god of lies.

So she sat down and briefly told him how Clint found her.

"Oh but I like this!" Loki beamed. She was getting sick of that smile. "Your world is in balance and you bargain for one man."

_Good, _she thought, _he swallowed the bait. He thinks it's all about Clint._

"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep about it, I'm Russian – or I was," she confirmed Loki's theory. Then she pulled out the Atoner Act, she made an impression that she wanted to undo some of her crimes by saving Clint. Again, not a lie.

But Loki was better than she expected. He knew she was telling the truth and he attacked it.

"Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter, Sao Paulo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything."

For a second her brain shut down. Clint had betrayed her. She thought of every moment they had spent together and felt raped. All her memories of Clint now belonged to Loki. The beach in Brazil, the month in the bungalow in Oregon just after Abe and Janet's death, holding hands in the dark in Budapest, climbing a construction at Stark Expo, the kiss on his forehead in the fire, their act to teach the rookies about distraction, and most importantly the moment on the beach in Madagascar. It all rushed through her head, so she didn't really pay attention to Loki.

"...but they are part of you and they will never go away." Loki punched the glass and Natasha backed a step. "I will not touch Barton, not till I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work and when he screams, I'll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

It was too much, she couldn't... She turned to walk away, but when he called her a quim, she stopped. She had to go through with this. For Clint. Storming away wasn't going to help him, but finding out what Loki was up to might. Natasha forced herself not to think about Loki's threat and whispered:

"You're a monster."

"Oh no, you brought the monster."

Just like every men, when he was winning, Loki slipped.

* * *

Natasha was standing too close to Banner when the explosion threw them in the engine room. She was stunned for a moment. She heard Hill in her comm, screaming about an engine down. Her ankle hurt like hell. She pulled herself together enough to tell Fury that they were okay and looked around.

Then she noticed how Banner clenched his fist.

"We're okay, right?"

Banner was already to changing, he was going to snap any second, and her foot was trapped under debris. Her only hope was to calm him down. Even though she was hurt and scared out of her wits, she had to try. Not only for her sake, for his own as well. Back in the lab, when he revealed how much he hated himself, she understood. She knew what it was like to be used against the people she loved, and she wasn't going to let Loki load another burden on Bruce. Not one like this.

She tried, she begged, she rationalized, she promised. Nothing helped.

The look Bruce gave her right before the Hulk took over was the saddest expression she had ever seen. It was a mix of fear, apology, and call for help. For a moment Natasha hoped that Bruce could still win, but the transformation continued.

It was fear what gave her the strength to free her leg and she ran. In other circumstances her ankle would give her trouble, but she was too terrified to think about it. Her body went to autopilot, avoiding Hulk's attacks and trying to find a place to hide, while her mind was busy with only one thought. _I am going to die today. I am not going to see Clint again. I can't save him._

Hulk finally caught her and tossed her aside like a rag doll. She was sitting on the ground and waited for the last blow, but someone knocked Hulk through the wall to the next room. When she peeked through the hole, she saw Thor getting ready to fight.

She curled up on the floor and hugged her knees. She had failed to help Bruce and she had failed Clint. She was too weak. She couldn't get through this. Not without Clint. Together they would think of something, but he was with the enemy now. For the first time since the hospital fire she was truly on her own.

Nobody who had met the Black Widow would believe it, but it happened.

She started to cry.

* * *

Barton let his minions get killed. They didn't matter. He had only two missions. Save Master and get rid of this flying fortress. Master was quite capable of saving himself any time he wanted, so all Barton needed to do was to provide distraction.

When he jumped down the hatch, he could already hear the distant roar of the Hulk. He smiled. Just as Master predicted.

Stark would be repairing the engine, Barton didn't need to worry about him. He sent some of his people to give him a hard time, but he had a more important mission. The bridge.

He was half expecting Rogers to defend the headquarters, but the living action figure was nowhere to be seen. Even better.

He silently watched Fury and Hill kill off the men he sent in as a diversion. They should have known better, they knew how Barton liked to sneak in the least probable places. And the little window was too high to be reached from the inside and it gave him a perfect view on the whole bridge.

He knew where was the plug he needed, but somebody was standing in the way. A name drifted from the depth of his memories. Verity, she was called Verity.

Barton nocked an explosive arrow and blasted her out of the way.

After his mission was done and the Helicarrier was falling from the sky, he turned and headed for the detention level. Master was waiting for him.

The woman caught up with him when he was halfway there. She confused him. She looked like the Black Widow, but something was telling him that it was Her. Maybe he did enough, maybe he was already getting his reward. In that case, why was She trying to kill him?

He knew her every move and she knew his. He pulled her hair and she bit him. It reminded him of something. A hotel roof... somewhere in Russia... red pigtails... The short flashback was enough to give her advantage. She slammed his head against the metal railing.

It all started to come back. Their last meeting on the beach in Madagascar... all the things he planed on telling her... _Oh God, what have I done?_... and her name. He was sure it was Her and he remembered her name.

"Natasha..."

She hit him again and Clint passed out.

* * *

Natasha was staring blankly ahead, as the medical team took Clint away. Coulson was dead and who knows how many others. Loki was gone. All was lost.

When she had heard that Clint was on board, she had forgotten her fear and pain. She had forgotten everything. She had failed to save Bruce, but she had got a second chance to save Clint – or die trying. She had no idea how to help him, so she tried one of Janet's first advices. _When something doesn't work, try turning it off and on. _Maybe when Clint wakes up, he would be back.

Fury wanted her on the bridge, but she went to the only place she wanted to go to – Clint's room in the infirmary. He needed her.

They tied him to his bed, but it didn't seem necessary. He was only half conscious and feverish. She patiently waited until his mutterings made sense and when she was sure he was back, she untied him. It was a serious offense against the rules, but Natasha didn't care about the rules any more. She didn't care about Fury, who tampered with things too dangerous to handle, she didn't care about SHIELD, who let Coulson die. Clint was the only thing that mattered. She saved him against all odds. It seemed to be a small victory, but it was the only one that meant something for her.

Only when Clint mentioned that Loki was going to make his play soon, she realized that it was not enough.

"We've got to stop him," she decided. For Clint, for Coulson, for Bruce.

"Yeah? Who's we?"

"I don't know." _Come on, Clint, it's not like we haven't done this before. Rushing into things without planning is our specialty. _"Whoever is left."

Fury wouldn't let them take any SHIELD agents. Coulson might have gone anyway, but he was dead. She doubted Rogers would go against Fury, and Stark... Stark had always been a force of nature, difficult to predict and even more difficult to control. So the "whoever" seemed to be Natasha and Clint. Again.

He sensed it somehow. Natasha saw that in the small nod. "Well, if I put an arrow through Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better, I suppose."

This was her old Clint, who stole a Quinjet and flew across the world to help her get the revenge. She smiled and for a moment she let herself believe that things were going to be like before.

"Now you sound like you," she told him.

"But you don't. You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?"

Clint knew her too well. He had seen her after Abe's death, in Budapest, when she was after Scorpio. She became a warrior only when it was personal.

"He didn't... just..." Natasha struggled to find the right words. Loki used innocent people and destroyed them. He had been on Earth for a couple of days and he had already caused so much pain. But that hardly made him any different from an average criminal. Her real reason was simple – he threatened Clint and he threatened to use him against her. But she wasn't going to tell him. "I've been compromised. I've got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out," she added. Acting like she was trying to atone for her sins was much, much easier.

"You know it doesn't work this way," he told her with a little smile.

"Of course I do. But I have to try. Now get cleaned up, we have a planet to save."


	13. Smash

**Basically a retelling of the Manhattan incident, but with some added scenes. And the last scene of this chapter – I have had it in my mind ever since the beginning of Liars and Killers. It's the point to which I've been heading for a very long time and I can't still believe I got there. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and support so far, please, keep reviewing.**

* * *

**Chapter 12: Smash**

Clint stared in the mirror. The blue color of his eyes was gone, they were just stormy gray. Still, he kept scanning his face and looking for a sign of something wrong. He wished he had turned into a green monster too. That way, he could have blamed _it_, not just himself.

He tried to heed Natasha's advice and not to think about what he had done. It was not his fault. It was Master. No, not Master, his name was Loki. Loki made him kill all those people. Loki made him fight Natasha.

The fact that she didn't hate him, that she had been sitting by his bed when he had woken up, that she joked about their fight, was the only thing that saved him from going mad.

That and one more thing: he was going to hunt Loki down and kill him with his bare hands, or one of his explosive arrows, in case he couldn't get close enough.

"Go where?" asked Natasha on the other side of the door.

"I'll tell you on the way," said someone. "Can you fly one of those jets?"

Natasha had always been riding shotgun. Ever since Budapest, Clint had been the one in the pilot seat. He opened the door and found himself facing Captain America himself. It didn't stop him.

"I can," he said.

One nod from Natasha was all Rogers needed to trust him. It was both wonderful and stupid, but Clint was still grateful for it.

"Do you have a suit? Suit up!"

Then Rogers disappeared. Clint looked at Natasha questioningly.

"He has a thing for costumes," she shrugged. "I guess being a poster boy does this to you."

"Where is my bow?" he asked. The weapon he used in Loki's service wasn't his favorite, but it had to do. Marty's bow had been destroyed in New Mexico.

"Your room. I'll meet you there," she told him and headed out.

Clint was surprised to find his room just as he left it after Madagascar. When all his life had been turned upside down, he somehow expected that someone would at least search every place he had ever visited.

On the bed was Marty's bow and quiver. It looked like a miracle. It wasn't supposed to be there. It belonged to his old life, it should have exploded with the Dark Energy Base.

He traced the familiar curves and smiled. He did the same thing he had done in Oregon, all those years ago. He hid his pain deep inside and got ready to kick some godly ass.

* * *

When your entrance in the fight is crashing a plane in the middle of New York, you can assume that things aren't going all that well. Natasha's day had gone wrong in every possible way, but fighting alongside Clint once again made her feel a little better. Of course, they had minutes to live, hours if they were lucky, but dying with him at her side wasn't the worst way to go.

She covered Clint as he pulled kids out of a crashed bus. Saving those children would be added on the list of all the good things he had ever done. Natasha was already putting it together in her head, because he was going to need to hear it soon.

Clint pulled the bus door open and in a moment he was next to her again, shooting arrows.

They were trying to revenge themselves on someone who had brainwashed one of them and got their handler killed. They stole a Quinjet and left against Fury's orders, they were trying to save innocent people and neither one of them really expected to live through this. All this seemed familiar.

"This is like Budapest all over again," she commented as she shot one Chitauri straight in the head.

"You and I remember Budapest very differently," muttered Clint between arrows.

_Sonya, of course, _Natasha thought. She didn't know exactly what happened between Clint and her doppelgänger, but she had no time to think about that. Even though the aliens weren't very good fighters, there were hundreds of them. Soon she ran out of ammo and her taser bracelets were out of power. She got hold of one of the Chitauri sticks and fought with that. It took her a while to figure it out and once she almost shot Clint, but it was still better than punching the metal armor with her bare hands.

The Chitauri were pressing them hard. Natasha was more than grateful when Rogers appeared, closely followed by Thor. Having help of a super-soldier and a god definitely improved their situation. With the four of them they managed to gain a moment to talk.

Their briefing was interrupted by a rusty motorbike. She hadn't expected Bruce to show up, but there he was, a little unsure of himself, but under control. He was obviously sorry for almost killing her and Thor, and when she saw his puppy eyes, Natasha couldn't stay angry with him. Besides, they could really use the Hulk.

Of course once Stark heard that his favorite monster was on stage, he had to bring that huge flying whale-thing straight to them. Natasha watched the Hulk punching the space-whale in the face and for a moment it looked like they might even win.

All six of them made a circle, back to back, and got ready to face Loki's army. Natasha reloaded her gun. She knew Clint was somewhere behind her, still alive and unharmed. For now that was enough.

She was the first to see more space-whales coming. There wasn't time to be surprised that Stark asked Rogers for orders, because they all had to listen to their Captain. Clint was the first to get his job – high above the city, of course. Natasha turned around and looked him in the eyes.

_Don't get killed, _she tried to tell him before Stark snatched him away. _I hope I'll see you again, _she added in her thoughts.

* * *

The position atop of a skyscraper meant one thing – Clint saw everything. He saw how many Chitauri actually stood against them. He didn't allow himself to think about the fact that six people were holding Manhattan.

Natasha and Abe had taught him a lot about observing and Clint was a natural. He quickly became the source of vital information. Stark needed him the most, but Clint hoped he was helping Natasha as well.

Meanwhile he brought down as many aliens as he could. He had never shot like this. It seemed that the arrows found their way to their target on their own. Suddenly he understood how Natasha had managed to walk in and out of Dreykov's headquarters alive. The anger inside him made him almost a superhero. He felt like he could simply step over the edge of the roof and fly.

"Hawkeye!"

Was Natasha riding a Chitauri? And was that Loki following her?

"Nat, what are you doing?"

"Eh... a little help!"

This was his chance. Help Natasha and get even with Loki with one arrow? It must have been Christmas.

He set the arrow for explosive and took aim. Today there was no way he was going to miss. Of course, he didn't count on Loki _catching _the arrow, so it didn't blow his brains out, but at least it blew him off the flying boat and it saved Natasha. He saw her land at the top of Stark Tower and he knew she was going to close the portal.

He realized he was in trouble when he ran out of arrows. He hit the Chitauri that climbed on his roof with his bow and found one last arrow. More flying boats were headed his way. There was no way out but down.

_Time to fly, _he thought and jumped.

As he flew through the air, he thanked Marty for the grappling hook setting in his quiver because today it saved his life. He swung the rope and smashed through a window. The bad part was that he landed on his quiver. For a moment the pain of a rib or two breaking blinded him.

Then he blacked out.

* * *

"Hawkeye? Hawkeye? Clint?!" Natasha heard him moan in pain and then nothing. She stopped only a couple of steps from the scepter and listened. Clint's communicator was silent.

In a second her whole world crumbled. _He might not be dead. He might be unconscious, or his communicator just broke down. He is not dead, _she tried to convince herself.

_But what if he is? _What if he was taken from her just when she got him back? What if she lost him like everybody else?

It took all her willpower to continue. She picked up the scepter and headed back to the roof. On her way she noticed that Loki was stirring. He was going to get up and join the fight soon.

She wanted Loki to live a little longer. He was not on the top of her to-do list yet. He was right behind closing the portal, finding out if Clint was alive, and securing New York. After that she and Loki would have a long chat. For now, she had to settle for hitting him in the face with the blunt end of the scepter, knocking him out again.

She ran up to the very top of the tower. Selvig told her what to do and she managed to get the scepter through the energy barrier. Only one little push and it could all be over.

"I can close it," she said and for a terrible moment it felt like she was the only one left. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" called Rogers and she had never been so relieved to hear a human voice.

* * *

It felt like hours, but it must have been just minutes. The portal was closed, the nuclear missile was gone, and Stark was alive after all. Natasha should have felt happy, but she was just exhausted and worried about Clint.

"Stay there," Rogers ordered her. "We're coming to deal with Loki."

"No. One of you flying boys is coming here and taking me to look for Clint. Loki can wait," she snapped.

"It's okay, Nat," said a familiar voice in her communicator. "Stay there, someone can pick me up."

"Clint? You fucking idiot, you scared me to death!" she yelled and for a moment their channel was flooded with a fluent stream of Russian curses and insults.

"Calm down, Nat, I am alive, I can stand and even walk. Thor is coming, you'll see for yourself."

She ran out, ignoring Loki, and looked around. Thor's entrance was hard to miss and when he dropped Clint on the floor, the archer looked like he'd prefer a taxi. His hair was sticking in every direction, he was covered in scratches, sweat and grime, and he was moving rather stiffly, but that didn't matter.

Clint was alive. She was alive. Everybody else was alive. The invasion was over. Everything worked out. For one moment her life felt perfect.

"You're late," she scolded him.

"Sorry, fell off a skyscraper on the way," he shrugged. Then he turned to Rogers and Stark, who had arrived in the elevator. "Let's get this done," he said.

* * *

They all agreed that Loki should be handed to justice and Thor swore that Asgardian justice can deal with him properly, so even though every last one of them was itching to throw him in a pit of crocodiles, they didn't hurt him. When Loki had been safely locked away in Stark's safe, they looked at each other.

"Shawarma," said Stark. "You promised."

"You can't find an open shawarma place now," Rogers objected.

"False, _you_ can't. _I _saw a lovely joint and the owners were in," Stark smirked as he let his robots get him out of the damaged suit.

"You had time for _shopping_?" Natasha sounded like she couldn't believe it.

"I just happened to notice it and I want to try it. And you are all coming with me because who is the hero of the day? Right, that would be me."

Clint wasn't sure if he was going to smack Stark or laugh. One by one the Avengers shrugged and agreed to get something to eat, because honestly, they were starving. They had to wait until Bruce shrunk to his original size and put on some of Stark's clothes.

When they reached the Shawarma Palace, they let Stark talk to the owners. He promised them so much money they could build a whole chain of fast food restaurants, and they let them in, although they did look a little nervous.

Just before they went inside Clint caught Natasha's hand. There was something he had to ask her and it couldn't wait. He had to do it while he still had enough adrenaline in his system to suppress his fear.

"Nat, you promised we would talk about... some things. Does that still stand?"

"No," she shook her head and before Clint's heart could break properly, she added: "There is nothing to talk about."

Then she kissed him.

He winced in pain because his whole body was sore, but when she tried to pull away, he hugged her and deepened the kiss. This was their first kiss, the one they had been waiting for for God knows how long, and he was going to make it count. Because underneath Hawkeye and Black Widow, under agents Barton and Romanoff, they were Clint and Natasha and they wanted to be together more than anything.


	14. Don't do that to yourself

**The last chapter before the epilogue. Mostly dealing with guilt and the consequences for the future. Expect some Clintasha fluff :-) (or almost fluff). Epilogue coming up in a matter of minutes, it's really short anyway.**

* * *

**Chapter 13: Don't do that to yourself**

The first SHIELD helicopter arrived half an hour later, when they were in the middle of their shawarma. They all heard it, but nobody rushed to get up. Their team leader was asleep with his head on the table, Tony was staring blankly at the wall, Thor looked like he wasn't sure whether he liked the food or not, and Bruce was obviously very pleased with himself and he wasn't going to let Fury ruin his moment.

"We should report," Natasha told Clint. "Or Fury will kill us."

"After everything we've been through you are worried about upsetting Fury?" Clint raised his eyebrows.

"Loki doesn't scare me half as much as our director. Let's make it quick," she got up.

"There is really no need for that."

They all turned and saw Fury standing in the doorway. The director went inside and sat on a table next to them. Natasha poked Steve to wake him up and ignored Stark inviting Fury for shawarma.

"No, thank you. I can't really afford being seen with you too much. I just dropped by to tell you that you are free to go. The Avengers Initiative has never been an official part of SHIELD agenda, so you don't have to talk to me again. Although I would appreciate your help from time to time," he continued. "A word of advice – disappear from the radar, all of you. The world knows about you and it's going to either destroy you as a threat or use you until there's nothing left of you. It is becoming a dangerous place for you.

I have one last request. I don't know where Loki is and let's keep it this way. The same goes for the Tesseract. Do whatever you think is necessary and don't tell me about it."

"Thank you," said Thor quietly.

"Good. Barton, Romanoff, a word in private, please." He lead them to the other side of the restaurant. Once they were out of the earshot, Fury started to talk. "I am sorry but I can't keep you as my agents any more. There are people in SHIELD who would kill you on sight. And the Council would love to see you dead. The Helicarrier crew is in an uproar. Once Stark got rid of the nuke, Warner and Holzmann tried to gather a group of people to find you two and kill you. I had to lock them in but I can't hold them off forever. You need to disappear."

"Wait, wait, Terence tried to kill us?" Natasha didn't understand. Terence was their friend.

"Verity," said Clint. She turned and saw his horrified expression. "On the bridge... I killed Verity."

Natasha remembered looking at Verity and Terence and wishing she could have a relationship that simple and sweet. She was glad the she found out about Verity after she had had her opportunity to kill Loki. God or not, he would have paid for the girl's death.

"It was not your fault," she whispered to Clint. "I know how you felt, remember? It wasn't you."

"My point is," Fury interrupted her, "I can protect you from an angry mob or the Council, but not from both. You are on your own, if you don't count your fellow Avengers."

"We are no Avengers," Clint laughed bitterly. "We just happened to help them."

"You two were the first people on my list of potential Avengers. After Abe died, I saw what you could do and I knew you were hero material. You can put it on a T-shirt." He turned to leave, but he paused for a second. "And good luck," he added.

* * *

They spent the night in Stark tower. First two floors were damaged and the top got the worst part of the fight, but between that there was enough room for them. Natasha took a shower and let JARVIS take care of her injuries. She wanted to check on Clint, but she needed to lie on a couch for a minute first. She fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

She woke up in the middle of the night. She sat up and saw a dark figure perched on her window sill. Clint was looking at the city, not at her, but she knew why he was there. She crossed the room and put her arms around him. He leaned against her and they stayed like that for a moment.

"It's okay," she whispered. "It's over. Get some sleep."

"I did," he answered. "But I had dreams. I remembered..."

"You didn't know what you were doing," she tried to persuade him.

"Selvig did. He fought it, he made the failsafe. I just massacred innocent people as I was told. I gave him everything he needed to know. I am a traitor."

"I talked to Loki," she confessed. "He knew about Irina, about Sao Paulo, about Abe and Janet. He tried to get to me, but guess what? That's not the most efficient way to hurt me. What _would _break me is much more simple – the beach in Brazil, our time in Oregon, that night in Budapest. You know that and you didn't tell him. You fought too."

"I couldn't even remember your name."

"Names don't matter. Yes, you will remember everything and it will hurt. But we are going to make it through, we always have. Go to bed, it'll be better in the morning." She pulled him off the window sill. He didn't resist.

Natasha considered dragging him to his room, but Clint was like a rag doll, like he lost all will to move on his own. So she just laid him on her bed, sat next to him, and stroke his hair.

"That's creepy," he muttered with his eyes already closed. Then he moved to the side and patted the spot next to him. She laid next to him and kissed him.

"You don't mind," she said.

* * *

That night Clint found out that he wasn't the only one with nightmares. He couldn't sleep but Natasha dropped off right away. For some time everything was quiet. After an hour or so she started to moan. Soon the moaning turned to whimpering and mumbling. Clint heard his name and moved closer. Natasha started to thrash about. He caught her wrist to avoid being punched in the face and that only caused her to fight him.

Seeing Natasha vulnerable had always forced Clint to pull himself together. She needed him. He let go of her hand and gave her time to calm down.

"Irina... Irina, please..." she whispered.

She started to flail her arms around. This time Clint caught her, held her against his body and didn't let go.

"Nat, wake up!" he said aloud. "Wake up!"

She twitched a couple of times before she was fully awake. Clint still held her.

"Clint?"

He let her go. "You didn't tell me that it's this dangerous to share bed with you," he said dryly.

"I am sorry. Was it bad?" she asked.

"No, just... you still dream about Irina?"

Natasha nodded. She was still breathing heavily, but she was calming down. Clint wanted to get up and go to the bathroom, but as soon as he moved, a sharp pain shot through all his back. He unsuccessfully tried to suppress the cry.

"Clint? What is it?"

He shook his head. "I landed on my quiver when I jumped through that window. Cracked a rib or two I think."

"And you didn't let JARVIS take care of that? Barton, are you trying to piss me off?" Natasha was already on her feet. "JARVIS, get the infirmary ready I am taking agent Barton there."

"I'm fine, Nat, really," he protested.

"Yeah, healthy as a horse. Come on."

"Nat, please... I avoided it on purpose. The pain..." he bit his lip. It was difficult to admit, but she deserved to know. "It is fair. I caused all this, I need to be punished somehow. This is the least I can do."

It didn't even make her pause. She had her answer ready.

"Remember Budapest, where I tried to kill the Smorph on my own? Remember what you told me? _It doesn't work this way._ I am getting tired of repeating this, but _it wasn't your fault_. And even if it was, you can't change it now. The only thing you can do is to live the best life you can – and let JARVIS take care of your ribs."

There was no point in resisting. They were just starting, but Clint felt that he wasn't going to win many fights in the future.

* * *

Fury sent a couple of his most trusted agents (off the record, of course) to keep watch until they figured out what to do with Loki. The god was still in Stark's safe, gagged and guarded all the time by SHIELD agents and at least one Avenger. Selvig, Banner, and Stark were working on a way to use the Tesseract to get Thor and Loki back to Asgard.

When they weren't Loki-sitting or helping out in the lab, Clint and Natasha enjoyed free time. After Fury's warning they stayed in the Stark Tower, but they were far from bored. Now that they were officially a couple, there were so many things they wanted to find out.

Ever since Budapest Clint had been wondering if Natasha could kiss better then her doppelgänger. She was even better than in his imagination.

And Natasha had always wanted to know what was it like to kiss someone she had feelings for. It was new and amazing and after every kiss she just wanted more.

They were sitting on the roof, next to Selvig's broken portal device and Natasha was teaching Clint chess, when they heard footsteps. They both jumped up and had their weapons ready in a heartbeat.

Two people stood there in combat gear. It was the first time they saw Terence Holzmann fully armed. Next to him, agent Warner was holding them at gunpoint. Before Natasha and Clint could decide what to do, Terence held up a metal box and opened it. Six tentacles shot out and disarmed them before they could move a muscle. At the same time eight more men appeared behind Warner and surrounded them.

Weaponless, outnumbered, and Clint's back and ribs were still far from alright.

"What are you doing here?" asked Natasha. Talking seemed to be their only hope now. Where were the Avengers when they needed them?

"The Council paid us very well to get rid of you two. They came to the conclusion that you became the Black Widow again and he," Warner pointed his gun at Clint, "has gone Dark Side as well."

"And we didn't need much persuading," Terence added. He was looking them with so much hatred. Natasha remembered the too sweet boy who helped her get to Clint in Detroit and she couldn't believe that he was on his way to becoming an evil genius. "It's kind of personal for all of us – you made quite a lot of enemies. And by the way, Stark has a lousy security around here. Disabling his system was a piece of cake."

"Terence, listen..." Clint began.

"You don't speak to me!" Terence shouted. "You killed her!"

"Terence, it wasn't me. I was controlled by somebody else..."

"Excuses!"

"No, it was Loki. I couldn't stop it, he was using my body. All I could do was watch myself killing my friends!" Clint shouted back. Natasha watched it in fascination. Clint was repeating everything she had been telling him for two days now and by trying to persuade Terence, he seemed to be persuading himself.

"I don't believe you," Terence shook his head.

"Then do it. Kill me. It won't get any easier. Ask Natasha. She killed someone who once had been her friend. Even though it was in self-defense and there wasn't any other way... ask her if she has ever dealt with it."

"Shut up, Barton," snapped Warner. "Positions!" he ordered the other agents.

"Terence," said Natasha softly. She hoped she could make him help them. "It's not going to bring Verity back."

"Take aim," Terence ordered without even acknowledging her presence. He was staring at Clint and if looks could kill, there would be no need for the other nine men.

"A word of advice, son – back off!"

Captain America in his full gear appeared just behind Warner. Iron Man flew over the roof and hovered protectively above Clint and Natasha. Behind Steve stood a much less impressive figure of Bruce Banner who gave Terence a friendly smile.

"Be so kind and don't make us angry," he told him.

"Only three Avengers coming to our rescue? Where is Thor?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, feeling a little unappreciated here," Clint added.

"Thor is on Loki duty," Bruce explained.

Then Warner made the worst mistake of his life. He took advantage of Bruce being distracted and fired at him.

Ten men on the roof were hardly a match for five Avengers. The Hulk managed not to hurt anybody. Tony held back as well and in the end there was only one casualty. One of the agents was dead, but he had been shot. That meant that none of the Avengers was to blame, because none of them used bullets this time.

"Come on," Stark landed on the roof and he herded the rogue agents inside. "Fury will deal with you."

"Terence!" Clint called. "I am so sorry about Verity, but there was nothing I could do."


	15. Epilogue

** Epilogue**

The next day they said goodbye to Thor and Loki, and after that Clint and Natasha stole a SHIELD car.

They headed north. The single reason was one sentence Natasha had whispered in his ear when he was trying not to kill Loki.

_How about British Columbia?_

And he had smiled and agreed.

"Why British Columbia?" he asked her now.

"Bruce said it's nice this time of the year. Some mosquitoes, but no agents."

That was enough for Clint.

They ditched the car and the nearest branch of Stark Industries had another one ready for them. Stark had given them two video phones as well.

"_The software is my own design. It uses only safe lines of communication, so the signal can't be traced back to you. Each of the Avengers has one,"_ he had said.

Natasha pulled hers out now and set it on video-call. Stark appeared on the screen and he was grinning.

"Thanks for the ride," Natasha said.

"You're welcome. Consider it a wedding present. Enjoy your honeymoon."

Clint opened his mouth to protest that they weren't married, but what else would he call it? They didn't say any vows, there was no white dress (he still couldn't imagine Natasha in one), but their kiss in the shawarma shop equaled a wedding. He didn't need to look at Natasha to confirm that she felt the same.

„Thank you," she told Stark. „Say hello to Pepper and Bruce."

„Sure. And don't take too long, lovebirds, or Banner will drive me crazy."

„I think the other way round is more likely," muttered Clint.

"Hey, Ladyhawke, train him a little better while you're at it!"

"If you call me that one more time, I'll have him turn the car around and I'll come to train _you_," she threatened. "Bye, Tony."

Natasha put the videophone away and she stretched in her seat. Soon she curled up and fell asleep and this time there were no nightmares.

Clint kept driving north. There was an old phrase stuck in his head. _F__or better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part... _But that had been true for them for years now.

In some ways things hadn't changed a bit.

* * *

**So this is it. Please, review the story, I want to know your opinion on the epilogue and on the story as a whole. I loved working on it and even though it didn't turn out as I expected (I expected so much more), I like some bits (especially the epilogue, even though it's a cheesy one).**

**I'm not really planning a sequel, even though making it a trilogy sounds appealing. But hey, anything can happen. I have a short story set some time after this epilogue which I will publish soon.**

**But the biggest thanks goes to you – my readers. Especially to every person who showed me their support by reviewing:**

**fAnFicLover0147, discordchick, mellbell12123, The Sugarfaerie, Malmal86, lucia of rivendell, Sinkme, thegirlwhowaited411, ArabianForest, KungFuHime2009, Rosabelmay, juli, WickedBlue, , Sophie-SSS, Sheikagal, fan-fiction-luvr123, La-Reine-Guenevere, HawkeyeLover, Miss Yorgi, GreyHaru, PanteraNegra, ann, Athena Writer 24601, Alexandra Nightshade and Revenge Tigger.**

**And thanks to all my followers. I wouldn't have gone this far without you.**


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